Should computer virus writers go to jail?

Yes

8 of 45

by David B Hitchcock

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Should computer virus writers go to jail?

Should people who steal go to jail? Should people who destroy things go to jail? Virus writers are no different, and they should be treated the same as those other criminals.

A virus writer is a computer programmer who writes a program that is a virus. Virus programs infect other computers and quickly spread to still other computers. In addition to spreading, a virus also uses the computers it infects for its own purpose. Some steal information, and others take over the computer to send lots of spam emails, or even attack a large company. All of these actions mean the owner of the computer can't use it, and often is seen to be responsible for the virus actions since it was their computer that was doing those evil things.

Stealing a loaf of bread is wrong. Stealing cable TV is wrong. Most people understand this concept really well. But stealing time or computer resources can be harder for people to understand. Let's look at Pixar, a big computer animated movie production company. They have thousands of computers that make their movies. If viruses infected all those computers, it would take longer to make the movies, and that would cost Pixar a lot of money. The same is true for other companies who are infected with computer viruses. If a stock trading company is infected, they can't trade, and can't earn any money. If an internet service provider gets infected, their customers will not have internet service. All of these are examples of how viruses affect people and companies.

If a virus takes over your computer and starts sending out spam in your name, is that so bad a thing? Well, first off everyone thinks those emails came from you so your reputation could be ruined, especially if you are a school teacher and the spam is for a porn website. Next internet service providers often block computers that send spam as a method of fighting spam to help their customers. If you send spam, you will be blocked. Websites on the Internet do this as well using published blacklists. If you are on the blacklist, you will not be able to do anything on the internet until you get off the list which generally only happens over time. While many people understand what viruses do, many others do not forgive people who let viruses onto their computers.

It all comes down to stealing. Viruses steal time, computer resources, and reputation. They force computer users to have special, and often costly, software in place to seek and destroy virus infections. All of this steals from computer owners, and the virus writers should be thrown in jail and if possible fined heavily to payback some of the damage they have done.

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