[HAL9000]

These proposals would practically outlaw Windows, and send a lot of Microsoft customers to the poor house. It seems a bit extreme, especially if an end user did not realize that his computer had a virus.

Still, I would not rule out the theory that someone who owned a virus-spreading computer may have some liability for negligence if they failed to prevent it. Of course, we already have laws on the books to prosecute people who intentionally spread viruses, worms and other malware.

[Shimmer128]

Yes, the government should legislate everything and make life completely safe for us.
sorry Hal, nothing personal.

[kenth]

Why not just pass a law outlawing connections to the Internet? That would be safe.

[aliquis]

Turn 90% of users into outlaws, yep, that's the way to go. Also install some sort of special monitoring software on every PC, so it would be possible keep an eye on the owner's activities with regards to security maintenance. And why not just jail the stupid users? That'd teach'em!

It's surely too much of a chore to go after the criminals, so why not just punish normal people. Also the spyware most users acquire on their PCs from companies for either marketing purposes, advertising etc, that, for some reason, is OK, the fact that it's a form of hacking is just ignored - there's some corporate money involved here, so why legislate? Also considerable amount of junk mail, but you can call it spam is produced by marketing divisions of various perfectly legitimate companies.

Their highway safety argument doesn't make sense either: if someone breaks into your vehicle to sabotage it and make it unsafe, it is not your fault to start with, and the perpertrator is a criminal.

Typical statist drivel: let's legislate, make lots of laws, hire lots of police to enforce them, create special bureaucratic bodies to assist and control the enforcement, etc. Commie bastards.