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There's no currently active principle that "commiting crimes is illegal, not producing tools that can be used to commit a crime" so we can't stick to it - it's

There's no currently active principle that "commiting crimes is illegal, not producing tools that can be used to commit a crime" so we can't stick to it - it's well established in many countries for many years now (the particular UK act is from 1990, so 29 years ago) that in certain conditions producing tools that can be used to commit a crime is a crime by itself. Of course, that doesn't apply to all circumstances and all tools that might be possibly used to commit crime, and it's a valid discussion topic on where exactly the line should be drawn; but that line between crime and not-a-crime definitely has some "I'm just producing tools" people on the crime side of it, not only morally but also legally, and not in some indeterminate future, but for as long as some of these "tool producers" have been alive.

jascii 7y ago
Interesting! Just for my further education, could you quote the name of the act in question? I assume there have been a few past that year.
- PeterisP 7y ago
  For UK, it's the Computer Misuse Act of 1990 at http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1990/18/section/3A http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1990/18/section/3A with things like, among other things, "A person is guilty of an offence if he supplies or offers to supply any article believing that it is likely to be used to commit, or to assist in the commission of, an offence under [section 1, 3 or 3ZA]." and "(4)In this section “article” includes any program or data held in electronic form." so it is quite explicitly about tool making - with the quoted criteria about the belief/intent separating whether it's a crime or not. Though it seems that I made a mistake about the age of that law - it seems that this particular section of the "1990" law was actually inserted in 2006 with the amendments introduced by the Police and Justice Act 2006 http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2006/48/section/37 http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2006/48/section/37 so it's old but not that old.

jascii 7y ago

Interesting! Just for my further education, could you quote the name of the act in question? I assume there have been a few past that year.

PeterisP 7y ago
For UK, it's the Computer Misuse Act of 1990 at http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1990/18/section/3A http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1990/18/section/3A with things like, among other things, "A person is guilty of an offence if he supplies or offers to supply any article believing that it is likely to be used to commit, or to assist in the commission of, an offence under [section 1, 3 or 3ZA]." and "(4)In this section “article” includes any program or data held in electronic form." so it is quite explicitly about tool making - with the quoted criteria about the belief/intent separating whether it's a crime or not. Though it seems that I made a mistake about the age of that law - it seems that this particular section of the "1990" law was actually inserted in 2006 with the amendments introduced by the Police and Justice Act 2006 http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2006/48/section/37 http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2006/48/section/37 so it's old but not that old.