Australian Biohacker fined over travel card implant
Australian Biohacker fined over travel card implant
While this wouldn’t usually be seen as newsworthy, the problem here is that Meow-Meow did have is Opal card, literally in his left hand, having surgically implanted his Opal card’s chip into it last April. This implant allowed Meow-Ludo to swipe his card/hand and access the busses, trains and ferries across the province of New South Wales, without the need for a wallet or physical money.
In total, Meow-Ludo Disco Gamma Meow-Meow has to pay his $220 fine and $1000 in legal fees. Meow-Meow’s lawyer stated that in this case, Meow-Meow is “head of the law”, while his prosecutors argued that “whatever was in the defendant’s hand, it certainly wasn’t a card”. The fine of $220 is for breaking the terms of use of his Opal card, as Transport for New South Wales does not support the tampering or damaging of Opal cards. If transport authorities find Meow-Meow using his card again, the card could be deactivated.  Â
Â
While Meow-Ludo had the physical chip from his Opal Card, the problem was that he had no way of proving that he had a ticket once on a bus or train. ABC reports Magistrate Michael Quinn as stating that the laws of today must be followed, but that legislation may one day catch up with technology. Mr Meow-Meow was undoubtedly disappointed that his case was not thrown out of court.  Â
You can join the discussion on the Australian biohacker being fined for implanting his Opal Card on the OC3D Forums. Â