Falsification of technical records

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The falsification of technical records is in Germany a crime by § 268 of the Criminal Code .

The forgery of technical records was introduced as a parallel provision to the forgery of documents, § 267 StGB, with the difference that the explanation of thought embodied in a document is missing due to the machine recording.

The term technical recording is not defined uniformly. For the most part, jurisprudence sees the feature of obtaining new information as protected by the facts of the case, so that, according to this view, copies, film and sound recordings or photos are not considered technical records, as they process what is available and reproduce it true to the original without adding further information. The opposite view dispenses with this feature.

A certain permanence of the representation is uniformly required, so that only displayed information, such as can be read, for example, on message tapes or on altimeters and tachometers, are not considered technical records. However, the demands on durability are different. The prevailing requirement is that the end product has solidified in a show piece that can be separated from the device, while it is occasionally considered sufficient if the information obtained is not completely lost, but at least serves as a basis for the further activity of the machine or is absorbed in it (Often cited example: the consecutive calculation values ​​of the odometer that build on each other).

Most of the acts are related to tachographs in trucks. The technical recording process is protected against manipulation from outside by § 268 StGB. This is done, for example, by bending the recording needle in order to record a lower speed on the speedometer disc (ultimately verifiable).

A completely new criminal offense, not to be confused with § 268 StGB, now makes the manipulation of odometers in motor vehicles a punishable offense ( § 22b StVG ). So far, this was only punishable as fraud if it was concealed when selling a used car in order to achieve a higher sales price. As this service was often offered by specialized companies under the name of "speedometer adjustment", a considerable market had developed. Even complex attempts ( backup of the meter reading in different vehicle systems, constant changes to the speedometer firmware ) by some car manufacturers to make manipulating the speedometer impossible or unprofitable failed.

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