Question: What are the legal consequences of distributing a virus over the Internet?
Answer: The consequences for distributing a virus over the Internet (or by any method) will depend upon the amount of damage that is caused by the virus and who is harmed by it. Computer viruses damage businesses by destroying information and potentially keeping employees and customers from doing business over company computers. In some of the biggest virus cases recently, entire corporate computer networks were shut down to avoid spreading viruses, which led to billions of dollars worth of lost business. You, the person spreading the virus, can be charged with destruction of property up to those amounts and can be sued by individual businesses for the amount of their lost business.
If you're having trouble seeing how this works, this is a very similar situation to walking up and throwing a brick through the front window of a business. In that case, you could be charged by the police for damaging property (breaking the window) and could be sued by the building owner for restitution (the cost of repairing the window). If the business had to close down during the repairs, you could be sued for that lost business as well.
Really, you should never spread computer viruses, because you can not predict what the consequences might be. Viruses spread across the Internet at unbelievable speed and the results can horrible. Even a light-hearted joke could turn into a disaster and you could be charged with starting the whole mess. So no matter what the legal consequences, just don't do it.
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