Conjunctions II - For advanced students / law students

This is a continuation on the use of conjunctions. In law, conjunctions are VERY important. Conjunctions are used to establish certain elements of a crime, or they can also establish requirements by a law abiding citizen in order to come into compliance with the law.

To recap let's briefly cover the use of conjunctions, particularly AND and OR.

AND is used to combine ideas.

Or is used for choices.

The following is an excerpt from the 2013 Florida Statutes, Chapter 815, Computer-Related crimes -- 2013 Florida Statutes, Chapter 815, Computer Related Crimes, Offenses Against Computer Users
 815.06 - Offenses against computer users.

(1) Whoever willfully, knowingly, and without authorization:

(a) Accesses or causes to be accessed any computer, computer system, or computer network;

(b) Disrupts or denies or causes the denial of computer system services to an authorized user of such computer system services, which, in whole or part, is owned by, under contract to, or operated for, on behalf of, or in conjunction with another;

(c) Destroys, takes, injures, or damages equipment or supplies used or intended to be used in a computer, computer system, or computer network;

(d) Destroys, injures, or damages any computer, computer system, or computer network; or

(e) Introduces any computer contaminant into any computer, computer system, or computer network, commits an offense against computer users.

• Willfully - On purpose [Not an accident OR no one is forcing the person to do it].
• Knowingly - Knowing what the results would be.
• Without authorization - The owner did not give the user permission.

As you can see, this little part of the law is already full of conjunctions. Let's examine clause (1) Whoever willfully, knowingly, and without authorization -- This particular language tells a lawyer working for the government (A state attorney, in the case of Florida) that in order to prosecute this crime, the accused has to operate a computer on purpose, and know what the results would be, and was not given permission. If the user was given permission then there is no crime.

Now, let's change it clause (1) to Whoever willfully, knowingly, OR without authorization which would mean that the accused has to operate a computer on purpose, or know what the results would be, or was not given permission. It certainly changes the meaning as to what is a crime (which would be easier to commit now) and the job for the state attorney becomes more plentiful, yet confusing as any of these actions by themselves would not ordinarily break the law.

Moving on to the next part of the law, the sub-clauses labeled (a), (b), (c), (d), and (e). In this case, the state attorney does not have to choose all five sub-clauses. The state attorney only has to choose one because computer crimes can take place in many forms.

The conjunction OR written into the law, in terms of sub-clauses (a), (b), (c), (d), and (e) gives the state attorney flexibility in matching the accused's actions and evidence with a particular violation.

Let's take clause (1) and sub-clause (e) to read: Whoever willfully, knowingly, and without authorization introduces any computer contaminant into any computer, computer system, or computer network, commits an offense against computer users.

• Computer contaminant - Computer virus

The state attorney would have to prove that whoever committed this computer crime, the accused  operated a computer on purpose, and knew what the results would be, and was not given permission and introduced a computer virus into any computer, computer system, or computer network, has committed a crime. If the conjunction for sub-clause (e) was changed to AND, it would mean that the accused has to introduce a virus to a computer, and computer system, and computer network. This would mean that the accused would have to cause a lot of damage before the law can do anything about it. This would make the state attorney's job very difficult.

Now you have a greater understanding of how important conjunctions are. This language is also important when putting contracts together. Next time you read a contract, change one of the conjunctions and see if it changes the meaning of the deal.