Fravia's Messageboard ~ Moderated
legal questions
Monday, 05-Apr-99 15:32:53

2 days after the meelisa vyrus was released, I got word from Sp(00)ky (who runs the Cohdebreakers vyrus website) that the F. Bee I. had shut down his website, not by a legal order, but by intimidating his ISP. He contends that it is not illegal to post live vyrus source code, but nevertheless he was unfairly targeted in a McCarthy-like purging of the internet.

It seems that what he did was not illegal. For example, antivirus companies distribute source code of vyruses for study purposes. Why shouldn't the "common man" have access to this information in order to protect himself? Most of all we mourn the loss of the Cohdebreakers magazine which was the best source of assembly language tutorials anywhere on the net.

tempest