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 \----------------------------------------------------------/ 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&e... /-----------------------------------------------------------------\