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From: Garance_Drosehn@mts.rpi.edu (Garance Drosehn)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.misc
Subject: Re: A modest proposal...
Message-ID: <~W|^{Z|@rpi.edu>
Date: 20 Nov 90 20:05:32 GMT
Organization: Rensselaer Polytechnic Inst.
Lines: 35
References:<1990Nov19.033747.29163@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu> <27013.27483646@kuhub.cc.ukans.edu> <1990Nov20.171542.8779@cunixf.cc.columbia.edu> <9720@jarthur.Claremont.EDU>
Nntp-Posting-Host: gilead.its.rpi.edu

In article <9720@jarthur.Claremont.EDU> 
           wilkins@jarthur.Claremont.EDU (Mark Wilkins) writes:
> In article <1990Nov20.171542.8779@cunixf.cc.columbia.edu> 
>            wln@cunixb.cc.columbia.edu (William L Nussbaum) writes:
> >- You have no control over the extent of this virus.
> >- You have no control over future modification of this virus.
> >- You introduce another variable into problems people may have.
> >- You cannot repair viruses with it.
> >- Given that it's copying itself over and over, there are a number of
> >   opportunities for corruption.
> 
> 
>   What if it gives the user an opportunity to refuse?  Throws up an
> informational dialog and lets the user choose whether to install it?
> Provides a means by which to remove it if it causes trouble?
> 
>   I think that if people were aware of such a thing it might not be so 
bad,
> as long as they were given the chance to refuse infection by such an
> anti-virus virus.
> 
>   I'm not necessarily posing this question seriously, but do you think 
this
> might lighten some of the ethical difficulty?

Presumably we're talking about users who are not sophisticated enough to 
use the current virus protection methods.  Most of your proposed 
safeguards would work OK for people who know what is going on, but those 
people aren't the target audience (so to speak).  How does the user know 
that the anti-virus virus is the cause of any problems they are having?

I think it's a bad idea.  I think it's also unethical to be mucking around 
with other peoples disks and files, even to "protect" them.

Garance_Drosehn@mts.rpi.edu