CTDONATH@SUNRISE.BITNET (02/14/90)
It has been noted that the author of a virus has an implied copyright
on the work. However, this will only be of any significance if the
author enforces the copyright by suing anyone who distributes the source
code without permission. But -
1. Is the copyright enforceable if the author cannot be located with
a reasonable search?
2. Who would claim ownership of a "released" virus? There might be
a small benifit from suing over copyright infringement, but
but the author would be sued for a much larger amount for
writing the virus and releasing it.
Also, the benifits of distributing source code (so that anti-virals can
be written) would probably legally outweigh the copywrite ownership case.