Morris Found Guilty (Winter, 1989 1990)
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Robert T. Morris Jr., the 25-year-old Cornell student responsible for the
Internet Worm, was found guilty on January 22 of federal computer tampering
charges in Syracuse, NY. He now faces five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
He was the first person to be prosecuted under a portion of the 1986 Computer
Fraud and Abuse Act. A hearing is set for February 27 in Albany, NY. Sentencing
will probably be scheduled then.

The government argued that Morris intentionally wrote the worm program to break
into "federal interest" computers he was not authorized to use, and by doing
this prevented their authorized use and caused a minimum of $1,000 in damage.

Several jurors said it was obvious Morris didn't intend to do damage. But they
say the damage would never have happened if Morris hadn't put the worm there.
None of the jurors owned a home computer.

One juror said of Morris, "I believe his integrity. I did not believe there was
any malice intended."

Another said Morris was "not a criminal. I don't think he should go to jail. I
don't think jail would do anything for him. To me jail is for criminals, and 
he's not a criminal. I think somebody should thank him in the end."

In its November 26, 1988 edition shortly after the Internet Worm made its
appearance, The New York Times described Morris as "fascinated with powerful
computers and obsessed with the universe created by interconnected networks of
machines."

Last year Senator Patrick Leahy of Vermont said,  We cannot unduly inhibit that
inquisitive 13-year-old, who, if left to experiment today, may, tomorrow,
develop the telecommunications or computer technology to lead the United States
into the 21st century.  He also expressed doubts that a computer virus law of
any kind would be effective.

There is no doubt that Robert Morris Jr. has a lot of potential. There seems to
be no doubt that he's an honest person. Even the prosecution seems to believe
this. We all know that he was the person responsible for the Internet Worm. So,
with all of this in mind, it seems as if the last few weeks have been a
tremendous waste of time for everyone.

Yes, he did it. He admitted doing it. He didn't mean to cause damage, but he
made a programming error. The shocking fact is that one programming error could
cause so much confusion. Add to that the fact that the holes he made use of
were common knowledge to the Internet community. Yet, nothing was done to close
the holes until after all of this happened. It seems like someone should answer
for this neglect of responsibilities. And let's not forget one other important
fact. Morris never logged into another computer system without authorization.
There is no proof that he ever planned to. He simply sent out a program to
collect data - through normal and legal channels. It was data he never should
have had access to, but thanks to the holes in the system, he did.

Morris made a mistake. That's all a part of the learning game, which he's now
been banished from. This technology is still in its infancy and, like any
system, its limits need to be constantly tested. We're making a very grave
error if we choose to simply focus upon the debatable legalities of what he
did, rather than learn from what he's taught us.

We re damn lucky it was Morris who did this. Because if a malicious or immature
person had done it first, the damage would have been real.