I feel a little nervous that an email message or a standard Word Document can be criminal.

I think about how I could easily write a DB application that sends automatic email. Think how easy it is in VFP to create OLE to word documents, Outlook and automatically send stuff. Some people might view this as a good thing. Suppose there was a slight error in the program (maybe it all works fine until an email group got deleted, or an OLE error caused the code to screw up) Suppose you end up creating a self-propagating message by accident and it disrupts communications say in one State or one city. Is this really criminal?

Do you think it is criminal to write a program that automatically accesses the users email system?

Now, I would be inclined to view this as a civil action, just as software companies can be sued because of faulty software maybe the responsibility resides with the service providers sueing the people responsible for messing up THEIR server.

To paraphrase Marshall McLuhan, Is it the medium or the message?

>I suppose that his freedom of speech stops short of interfering with others rights to do the same. If someone writes a virus that uses my email to send out messages to 10 of my associates using my contact list without my permission....then he has committed a crime.
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>Jeez, Bob, are you sure you're not libertarian :-)
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