rmula of finding out the intensity, duration, certainty, and propinquity of the pain and pleasure among other parts of the equation.(158) It is the writers belief that if the public was more educated and virus writers didn't distribute their "art" then the pleasure would be greater than the pain. However, this is only one tradition. John Locke wrote in his Treatise of Government, Part II that "men may be restrained from Nottingham 5invading others' rights, and from doing hurt to one another..."(110) This may seem like it is saying that viruses should be illegal but when one stops and thinks about it, if someone made it more difficult for one to learn an important skill, of if they prevented the discovery of a secret that would help all of society then they would be "invading others' rights, and...doing hurt to one another." What Locke meant, in this writers opinion, is that one may do whatever you wish to benefit yourself, such as learning assembly language through viral programming, as long as it doesn't harm society by invading others rights, such as publishing a dangerous virus.It is clear that it is wrong to publish viral code if the virus can cause damage, but what if the virus just searches out other viruses and then destroys them? Isn't this still an invasion of property? Epictetus says in his Moral Discourses, Part I, "What then is to be done? To make best of what is our power, and take the rest as it occurs."(93) So he would agree that the people who created the destructive viruses should do what is in their power to make the situation right or "to make best what is in our power." Using Jeremy Bentham's measure of pleasure and pain, a Utilitarian would take into account the short amount of time it takes to detect and delete the virus (duration), the amount of grief that the good virus can save (intensity), and the fact that the bad virus will cause harm (certainty) we can see that there is nothing unethical about a no...
