[Mimedefang] Viruses: Bounce or Discard?

David F. Skoll dfs at roaringpenguin.com
Mon Sep 29 16:02:00 EDT 2003


On Mon, 29 Sep 2003, Ben Kamen wrote:

> Well - hmmm... so I would blame my mom/dad and charge her/him $0.10 for
> every virus they send out because some script-kiddie wrote malware on a
> platform from a company that's known for thumbing up their nose at the
> concept of security.

Yes.

It's called "fixing a distortion in the marketplace" or
"making people responsible for their choices".

> Too bad we can't charge back M$ with the problem in terms of wasted
> bandwidth. I think if we were fair and charged it per byte against the
> charge for a line's given monthly bandwidth, it would add up to some
> real party money.

Believe me, if one million mom-n-pop shops got an itemized invoice
from their ISPs explaining why this month's bill was $100 more than
last month's, there'd be some serious customer action against
Microsoft.

> But blaming the user for using an OS they almost "have" to... that's
> tough. There is a responsible party.. I just don't think it's the end user.

Neither do I.  But end-users can't get compensation from Microsoft
unless they themselves are harmed financially first. If you
unknowingly buy stolen goods or accept counterfeit money, you're still
on the hook.  It's up to you to try to get compensation from the real
perpetrator.  IMO, the same idea should apply to viruses.  The only
difference is that in the case of viruses, there's at least an
identifiable target to go after.

Regards,

David.



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