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| No | 15% | 156 votes | Total: 1018 votes | |
| Yes | 85% | 862 votes |
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Add to FavoritesShould gun manufacturers go to jail? After all, the things they build are used to commit crimes. What about breweries and distillers? People who drink alcohol drive while intoxicated. Isn't that also the fault of the manufacturer?
Of course not. And, in actuality, the number of people would hold those extreme positions is quite small. In a free society, we allow people the ability to choose what actions they perform. For the most part, it doesn't matter if the actions have the potential for dangerous consequences. We allow individuals to choose to perform actions that are not safe and hold them responsible for the foreseeable results of their actions. And when the result happen to violate the standards what we have set up (where, in this case, 'standards' equals 'laws'), we find ways to punish them.
There are exceptions that we have to letting individuals do what they want. When society has a vested interest in the outcome, laws are passed to force individuals to behave a certain way. Speed limits are an obvious example of this. We don't allow people to drive as fast as they want, because it is readily apparent that doing so will unreasonably put others at risk. The key portion of that idea is found in the term 'unreasonable'. It is unreasonable to force everyone who drives on public roads to accept the risk of serious injury or death in order to allow people to drive as fast as they want. In this case, the rights of the many outweigh the rights of the individual. And, in fact, that is the standard that is used to decide when an individual is restricted regarding personal actions.
So let's apply that standard to writing a computer virus. What risks are society exposed to because a computer virus is written. As it turns out, absolutely none. The mere act of writing a computer virus has no impact on anyone. There are actually legitimate use for software that acts like a virus, but that is irrelevant to the argument. If a virus is written, it is completely benign unless it is spread to others. It is really the act of releasing the virus into the wild with the intent of stealing or destroying computing resources that is the criminal act. And that act is already against the law.
So don't send the authors of computer viruses to jail. Indeed, the creation of a computer virus should not be illegal. Instead, concentrate on finding the people who released to virus to the public. Those are the people who should feel the wrath of the law. Now it just might be that they are same person. But there is enough of a difference in the intent of their actions to warrant having one act legal and the other illegal.
Learn more about this author, Bruce Johnson.
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Yes
by Henri Zimand
Virus writers, if we understand those that send willingly through the internet malicious worms, the answer is a big YES.
Worms and viruses have become so malicious and so disturbing to most computer users that we have to try and find ways to stop them. There are many theories saying that anti virus software manufacturers were the first to put some viruses on the air so that they can sell their goods.
Unfortunately nowadays it is some individuals that for some malicious game send out some deadly viruses that can kill your computer and its software that you can loose all your information, programs, emails, work that you might have worked on for years. Hopefully most people that have very important work have a back up somewhere they keep.
We have different viruses and worm, some that are harmless, some that just look for information on your computer, some by some mistake in a program. Those are things that people don't need to go to jail for.
Hackers are also of two different kinds, the harmless ones and the malicious ones. The malicious ones are the ones that send these viruses around the globe. Most of the people have read in newspapers or the internet and have seen films about the harm and the possibilities.
They are realities, banks have been robbed through viruses, information has been robbed through viruses and when these criminals implant viruses in certain computers they can be in charge of these computers. Imagine that you have factories, electrical power grids and security systems belonging to governments being infiltrated successfully, I don't have to draw a picture of the results.
So the question if those people writing these kinds of malicious viruses should be brought to justice and sent to jail is a clear of course. This does not mean that others will not continue doing this.
Even when you have the most updated anti virus program it still does not mean that you are hundred per cent safe. Sometimes new viruses are thrown on a specific day and it takes a few days to find them, understand them and update the software to include these new viruses.
One of the things that bother me is that when you have anti virus software and pay the license every year you still need to pay an engineer to help you get rid of a virus that entered your computer. They charge you around one hundred dollar and try to help you get rid of the problem.
So be careful what you download emails or software also when you open emails, that is when you most likely will catch a virus.
Learn more about this author, Henri Zimand.
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