ABSTRACT
Stephen Brown LJ: ... The justices in the case state that they found the following facts: (1) the defendant was employed by Hi-Tech Profiles Limited to work on a computerised saw owned by that company; (2) that the computerised saw relied for its operation on a printed circuit card being inserted into it, containing programs which enabled the saw to be operated so that it could cut window frame profiles of different designs; (3) that the printed circuit card was of no use to the company unless it contained programs which enabled it to cause the saw to operate as (2) above; (4) that on 30 July 1984 the defendant blanked the computerised saw of all its 16 programs thereby erasing the said programs from the printed circuit card by operating the program cancellation facility, contained within the computerised saw, once for each individual program removed; (5) that the defendant’s action rendered the computerised saw inoperable, save for limited manual operation, which would cause production to be slowed dramatically ...
