ACSAZ@SEMASSU.BITNET (05/31/89)
Ahem, WRONG!
Hi, considr you have a harddisk machine ohhh say a Mac II and you put
a new (from the company) disk ooohhh say Aldus Freehand in the drive.
Now, on your hard disk, you have all the programs that you BOUGHT
(yes, the "B" word!). You install your copy of Freehand on the
harddisk BUT it has SCORES ON IT! Do you still think that Virus
writing is not a crime?
This actually happened to us at Southeastern U.. Luckily, we have
people here who have a clue and we fixed it. Defining the term
`Virus' and criminal actions is not easy. Technically, a virial
program that would search out and destroy resident copies of scores or
nVir or etc is a virus and the distinction is only in the intent of
the programmer and the result of his and many in between (those who
swap disks). In short, (and as of now) a criminal virus is one that
is capable of destroying/altering information and is resident in a
`parasite' state. This does not include programs that search out and
destroy the above as their purpose is to remove the danger not to
cause it. Remember this is not a comprehensive defination.
good discussions, let's kep it up and
make something of it.
Alex Zavatone
Library Mac Software Chief
Southeastern Massachusetts Unv.
acsaz@semassu
disclaimer: nope.