However, in the more general case, if one takes the position
that, if I build a dangerous-but-useful tool and someone misuses
it, I should be held responsible, we are going to end up with
rules against a lot of very useful stuff including, in extreme
cases, many open source environments.
understood, and agreed that that danger exists.
however I do think there is some culpability on the part of the
software vendor. and from a purely pragmatic perspective, it's a
lot easier for the vendor to make software that is less susceptible
to such things, than it is to get rid of the virus writers.
and if the folks who sell such software would just fix this, we wouldn't
need to care so much about culpability. but I'm not holding my breath
waiting for this to happen.
Keith