It has been 3 weeks since you started programming your new virus,
you've included features never seen before in the virus world.  It
feels good to have the extra knowledge.  Then you decided to release
the source code out of the goodness of your heart for people that were
once like you to learn and become competent virus writers.
                                                                              
    Well that's about as far as it gets, because that's when you
start to see copies of your virus with other peoples names in them.
The same source, perhaps a piece of destructive code that wasn't
there when you last looked but the same virus.  The feeling of
goodness goes away rather fast.
                                                                              
    Nope, it's no fun to have your virus ripped to shit all of a
sudden.  Evading virus scanners by strategically inserting NOPs around
the place is so easy!  (except for those scanners which ignore NOPs heh)
The scan strings used by most scanners can be found without too much
difficulty.  Releasing this as a new unscannable virus with your k-rad
message "i WRoTe THiS11" is not the way to go.  It levels people with
rats.
                                                                              
    We all have to learn from somewhere but is ripping a complete
virus and making a few changes here and there the way to do things?
Surely study of several codes together will allow you to learn how
each module of virus code works and piece together your own.  Still,
when using whole routines from other peoples virii unless you
acknowledge the original author, what you're doing is stealing!
                                                                              
    When the people that wrote the virus find out who the little
shit that modified their code is I don't think they'd be very
happy.  A nice phat trojan would be hopping their way I think.
If you can't write a virus, don't release one!  Simple isn't it.
There are so many virii out there, so many that you may write a
virus from scratch and McAfid Scan tells you it's the [XXX] XXX
virus when it ain't!  Scan strings are like the phone numbers in
Australia, they're running out.  A classic example was the
No Frills virus when it was identified as the Feist virus.  Sure,
SCAN now has NF specific scan strings but it was a bit of a bitch.

    Why do people do it?  Perhaps because they can't write virii
for shit and want to see their name get everywhere.  Well it would
be quite easy for most people to grab hold of VCL or a similar
program to do that sort of thing.  Why rip original work that took
someone ages to write!  VCL is made to produce virii which people
can personalise.  A text editor and someone elses source code can
do the same thing, but you're stepping with the thieves of the
world when this happens.
                                                                              
    There are so many virii in the world, it's getting hard to
come up with new ideas that haven't been done already.  If you do
manage to turn out something new it will gain you respect from
others!  So why rip now when you could learn and try for the top
when you're ready?  I don't know.. after all, assembler definately
isn't one of my favourite topics right now.
                                                                              
    This isn't directed at anyone, but it seems these virus mags
are like magnets to lamers who want to get their school back for
all those years of pain by ripping a virus and causing havoc.  So
for the serious virus authors out there, keep up the good work.
For those that think they can rip away if they feel like it, get
back in the kennel.
                                                                              
    Metabolis/VLAD