what is a virus writer?

a virus writer is a person who writes/programs viruses, nothing more, nothing less...

while many virus writers do more than just write viruses, those other things are not technically part of being a virus writer - being a virus writer does not imply sharing viruses, spreading viruses, publishing viruses, or letting viruses escape... the act of writing a virus does not require or imply the communication of the virus with the rest of the world, and if the virus isn't communicated to the rest of the world it cannot be a problem - thus we shouldn't try to solve the supposed problem with totalitarian laws about what we can or cannot write on our own computers as it addresses the wrong problem...

people often forget/ignore/gloss over the distinction between virus writing and the related activities but i think martin overton said it best when he said "I don't give a flying fig that you write viruses (as long as you keep them to yourself)"...

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