How would it be unethical to reverse engineer a virus to create a fix for it, and show people what is happening? And on that, how would it be unethical to distribute your fixes, even if they did come out before the mainstream AV fixes got to it? And how would it be illegal? I mean, think of it this way.
1. The virus created wasn't exactly legal to begin with. So you reverse engineer this to fix it. The possession of a virus isn't illegal, and programming isn't illegal, either.
2. You are releasing your code and fix independently of the AV industries, and claiming no connection with them, so I don't see any reason that they could complain. Contrary to what they may think, they don't have a monopoly on the rights to create virus fixes. If an individual programmer wants to create a fix to a problem, and toss it out into the public, even not as open source, that is his or her perogative. He can even charge people for the fix, because it is HIS creation, and nobody else's. Heck, if I were you I'd reverse engineer the thing, fix it, and then sell the fix to the AV industries if they're really that slow. =)
3. It's not like you're dealing with a way to make a new Napster or DVD encoder so you don't have to deal with the RIAA or MPAA and getting them all peeved off. =) |
