THE Computer Crime and Cybercrime Bill, currently being discussed by different stakeholders in Harare, seeks to impose three-year jail sentences to people who use others’ identity to commit crimes via electronic means.
by VENERANDA LANGA
The stakeholders were on Wednesday and Thursday gathered at a Harare hotel to discuss the draft Bill by the Ministry of Information Communication Technology at a workshop organised by the Centre for Applied Legal Research (CALR).
Other draft Bills being discussed from the ICT ministry during the stakeholders’ meeting are the Data Protection Bill, the Electronic Transactions and the Electronic Commerce Bill.
The draft Computer Crime and Cybercrime draft Bill reads: “Any person, who unlawfully and intentionally, by using a computer system, acquires, transfers, possesses, or uses, any means of identification of another person with the intent to commit, or to aid or abet, or in connection with the commission of a crime, shall be guilty of an offence and liable on conviction to a fine not exceeding level eight or imprisonment not exceeding three years or both.”
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Other draft provisions still being discussed on the Bill include criminalisation of harassment of other people using electronic communication, violation of intellectual property rights, and transmission of multiple spam messages (electronic mail), with the intent to deceive or mislead users.
“Any person, who unlawfully and intentionally generates, possesses and distributes an electronic communication with the intent to coerce, intimidate, harass, threaten, bully or cause emotional distress, degrade, humiliate or demean the person of another person, using a computer system or information system shall be guilty of an offence and liable, on conviction, to a fine not exceeding level 10 or imprisonment not exceeding five years or both,” the draft Bill reads.
Unlawfully stealing another person’s work using a computer in a manner that violates property rights or where copyrights exist in respect of any work without the authority of the owner is also being considered for criminalisation.
Stakeholders are still making suggestions on how the final draft should read before it undergoes the different processes and stages of crafting a Bill in Parliament that will ultimately make it a law.