Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!lll-winken!lll-lcc!ames!ll-xn!mit-eddie!bloom-beacon!oberon!cit-vax!tybalt.caltech.edu!woody
From: woody@tybalt.caltech.edu (William Edward Woody)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac
Subject: Re: Posting Virii (was Vaccination for nVIR virus)
Message-ID: <5846@cit-vax.Caltech.Edu>
Date: 19 Mar 88 23:15:10 GMT
References: <2466@geac.UUCP> <650014@vx2.GBA.NYU.EDU>
Sender: news@cit-vax.Caltech.Edu
Reply-To: woody@tybalt.caltech.edu.UUCP (William Edward Woody)
Organization: California Institute of Technology
Lines: 42


I'll be frank about it:  I'm scared sh*tless of the little buggers.

I'm a part time student and a full time employee of Visual Information, Inc.,
the makers of Dimensions.

Much of my work (for both a student and an employee) is done on my MacII.

If my disk got infected, it could set me months behind in both classwork
and programming for VII.  If it was the MacMag variety of nVIR virus,
my work could be fried.  And as I swap disks regularly with the other 
employees of this company, my fellow workers could be infected and have
their MacII hard disks destroyed.

With our target machine being the MacII, if the software we sell gets
infected, it could (and probably would) wipe us out.  We're competing
in a tight portion of the Macintosh market, and the loss to our
reputation would send us into Bankrupcy.

Where the h*ll would MacMag be then?

I'm p*ssed at the arrogance of anyone who would let a (potentially)
destructive program out, and say that it was "a harmless little message."
Unless the virus was thoroughly beta-tested on all machines (including
XL, 128K Macs), someone could get hurt.  And the chance does exist
that a couple of small companies are going to have their name destroyed,
their business ruined, their pocketbook drained.  I'm scared because
I want to eat.  I don't want to suddenly find myself out of a job because
of someone who just couldn't resist a prank.

Yes, there IS a legal case against MacMag.  The only problem is suing
across national boundaries is a painfull process, and I remember reading
here that MacMag was in Canada.

Can we boycot them instead?

This is very serious; after all, I'd bet anything that the majority of us
make our living and pay our bills by what we do on these cute little
machines.  And for someone who we don't even know to let out a program
that could wipe out our hard work, that's scary.
  -  William Edward Woody
     woody@tybalt.caltech.edu                   (Mac>][n&&/|\)&&(MacII>AT)
Disclamer:  I haven't the foggiest idea what I'm talking about...