Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!ogicse!oregon!jmeissen
From: jmeissen@oregon.oacis.org (John Meissen)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: Virus
Keywords: you've, gotta, be, kidding
Message-ID: <444@oregon.oacis.org>
Date: 10 Apr 90 17:14:30 GMT
References: <9004061744.AA13588@jade.berkeley.edu>
Organization: Oregon Advanced Computing Institute (OACIS), Beaverton, OR
Lines: 12

In article <9004061744.AA13588@jade.berkeley.edu> C503719@UMCVMB.MISSOURI.EDU ("Baird McIntosh") writes:
  [stuff deleted]
>hope that my assessment is incorrect.  In any case, I don't think there is a
>way in software to write to a write-protected disk; the hardware won't allow
>this type of write to occur (which is perfectly reasonable and expected).
>
Unfortunately, the write protect mechanism involves an optical detector. If the
light source is not functioning it is the same as write-enabling the disk. A
defective drive will allow writing to a protected disk.
Proper fail-safe design would have reversed the modes, so that a closed tab 
meant write-protect. A failure in that case would mean a default
of write-protect.