Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!att!osu-cis!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!mailrus!ames!haven!ncifcrf!nlm-mcs!adm!smoke!gwyn From: gwyn@smoke.ARPA (Doug Gwyn ) Newsgroups: comp.sys.apple Subject: Re: To someone in Brooklyn... Message-ID: <8426@smoke.ARPA> Date: 4 Sep 88 07:14:58 GMT References: <8809021457.AA12146@mitre.arpa> <8809021901.AA16733@hub.ucsb.edu> Reply-To: gwyn@brl.arpa (Doug Gwyn (VLD/VMB) ) Organization: Ballistic Research Lab (BRL), APG, MD. Lines: 24 As usual the politicians focus on narrow specific issues rather than upholding general principles. The reasons for this are historical and I don't want to get into that now, but I will say that attacking symptoms is no way to really solve a problem. No matter how an anti-virus bill is worded, so long as it tries to specify details, the thug will always be able to work around it. What should be (and I used to naively think was) protected by the law in this case is persons' property. Viruses are bad not because they are a nuisance (many things are that) nor because they can unexpectedly remove files (many UNIX users have done that to their own files while using standard system utilities), but rather because they implement malicious destruction of the property of others. ANY action along those lines should be considered a crime. Until we have widespread support for such a general principle, all we'll get from the legal system is more ineffective and burdensome restrictions. I saw on a remote BBS the other night several messages about a certain person (his name and home phone number were given) who was breaking into BBSes in the area and erasing all the files he could get his hands on. One might wonder why nobody seemed to think of calling the authorities, although I bet you can guess what the answer would be..