Path: utzoo!utgpu!attcan!uunet!ncrlnk!ncrcae!hubcap!gatech!udel!princeton!njin!rutgers!netnews.upenn.edu!linc.cis.upenn.edu!farber
From: farber@linc.cis.upenn.edu (David Farber)
Newsgroups: comp.misc
Subject: Re: Possible Fines for Virus Perpetrator
Keywords: Morris, virus, internet
Message-ID: <6101@netnews.upenn.edu>
Date: 10 Nov 88 03:22:11 GMT
References: <456@l5comp.UUCP> <440@occrsh.ATT.COM> <312@pte.UUCP> <447@occrsh.ATT.COM>
Sender: news@netnews.upenn.edu
Reply-To: farber@linc.cis.upenn.edu.UUCP (David Farber)
Distribution: na
Organization: University of Pennsylvania
Lines: 29



I cannot help it ..  I must comment. "all we lost is cycles" ... 
"it showed people the problem"... and on and on.

I would like to point out that there were perhaps hundreds of 
scientists and engineers (that may be very small) who could
not use networks or get adequate response from their systems
or generate their proposals or missed trips due to dead mail
systems etc etc.

The network is NOT a toy, it is a facility to a big community
of working people who count on it. I suspect you would be
upset if a biologist let loose a recombinent dna bug to see
what would happen, or if someone brought down the east coast
power system to show that it can be done (and it can). 

I will leave off professional ethics and such but....

I am keep thinking of a scientist (I hope heshe does not exist)
who decides to test the nuclear winter theory by starting a war.

Come on now.

Dave
David Farber; Prof. of CIS and EE, U of  Penn,  Philadelphia,  PA
19104-6389 Tele: 215-898-9508; FAX: 215-274-8192 "The fundamental
principle of science, the definition almost, is  this:  the  sole
test of the validity of any idea is experiment." -- R. P. Feynman