[Air-l] An astonishing development ...

[Ken Friedman]

Dear Colleagues,

Truth is stranger the science fiction.

This story covers a new kind of virus
that seems to perform functions that
no virus has ever before performed.

Aside from the technical ingenuity it
requires and the unresolved legal
issues that it creates, it demonstrates
a rare conceptual ingenuity for the
potential social dimensions of IT.

Ken Friedman

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Virus Searches for Pornography


By ROY FURCHGOTT


A new rogue computer program, possibly intended to perform a public
service, has raised thorny legal questions and seems sure to fuel
the debate over computer privacy.

  The new virus, which is called VBS.Noped.a, searches the target's
machine for what it suspects may be child pornography and reports
the names of files to the police. There are no reports of police
officials acting on such results, and antivirus software companies
say it has not yet been distributed widely and is at relatively low
risk of damaging computers.

-- snip --

  Perhaps most troubling, legal experts say, is the havoc that the
virus could wreak on the reputation of people with no involvement
in child pornography.

  "There is no telling how far this information might spread," said
Stephen J. Davidson, a lawyer and spokesman for the Computer Law
Association. Local news organizations could report that a parent
was under investigation as a pedophile, he said, "all resulting
from an unwarranted and illegal entry to your private computer."

-- snip --

http://www.nytimes.com/2001/06/11/technology/11VIRU.html?ex=993250854&ei=1&en=1054ffe79ec59eb9


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