Commercial liability for distributing a virus

[Jay R. Ashworth]

>From article <4123 at chinet.UUCP>, by dag at chinet.UUCP (Daniel A. Glasser):
} In article <622 at sun.soe.clarkson.edu> nelson at sun.soe.clarkson.edu.UUCP (Russ Nelson) writes:
} +In article <4811 at ecsvax.UUCP> kotlas at ecsvax.UUCP (Carolyn M. Kotlas) writes:
} ++In article <500 at xios.XIOS.UUCP>, dont at xios.XIOS.UUCP (Don Taylor) writes:> 
} +++ [I did ] a 'strings' on MS Word (version 2 I think) and I saw a chilling
} +++ message that said something to the effect: 'the fruits of evil are bitter,
} +++ wiping your hard disk now...'.
} ++This isn't the only instance of little messages being sprinkled in
[ lots of neato stuff deleted here to save bits... ]
} The most virus-like thing I've ever heard of acutally built into a
} 'commercial' software release is the login/cc hack in which cc would
} recognize that it was compiling login and include code that would
} allow the author to log in (as root, I believe) on the system without
} the root password, and would recognize that it was compiling a new
} version of cc, and insert the code to recognize itself and login, so
} the sources to cc and login did not contain the security holes, just
} the binaries.  This was done, so the story goes, as a demonstration
} by the author of the hack (was it dmr, kt or bk?) of how easy it was
It was Ken.
} to get around the security in UNIX, and not intended to be distributed,
} but a few unix tapes were shipped with compilers infected with the
} virus.  The entire story may be apocriphal, but I heard it from a
} good source.
So did I.  Hugh Downs, to be exact.  Yes, that Hugh Downs.  On the ABC
Radio Network program "Perspective", where, incidentally, he described
UNIX as an "industry-standard" operating system. (Hence the cross-post.)
} -- 
} 		Daniel A. Glasser	dag at chinet.UUCP
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