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May 11, 2000 In response to "Love Bug" suspect Onel de Guzman's explanation that he "mistakenly" transmitted the virus to thousands of computer systems, I say we should release the poor fellow pronto. He's obviously an upstanding citizen who feels terrible about this damn mishap.
We really need to be more forgiving. Along these lines, I also propose that we release Unabomber Ted Kaczynski who probably feels awful about severing the arms and legs off of all the recipients of those damn exploding packages he accidentally dropped in the mail.
Guzman, a 24-year-old dropout of AMA Computer College (AMACC) in the Philippines, spoke to the press after the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) indicated that they had collected enough evidence to call him in for questioning. Apparently, in spite of being an astutely intelligent fellow, Guzman had neglected to remove key information from his code such as his name, address, telephone number, weight, height and birthmarks. In addition, the key phrase "I am guilty. I did this. Come arrest me," also prompted authorities to seek the former student for questioning.
According to school officials, Guzman had dropped out of AMACC after professors had rejected his thesis which claimed that the destructive Love Bug virus would be a wonderful thing for the world to experience and would bring the quality of life up in general for the global population.
Apparently, Guzman intended his virus to provide free internet access to poverty-stricken people by providing them with stolen passwords. The fact that these very same people probably do not own computers was unfortunately not considered by the computer whiz before he unleashed the virus.
When asked directly by the press if he was responsible for the Love Bug (which is estimated to have cost $7 billion in damages), Guzman's lawyer, Rolando Quimbo, responded, "It is possible." When asked if Guzman was a raving idiot, Quimbo also answered in the affirmative.
In addition, Guzman was asked if he were unaware of the potential destructive capacity of the program. To this, Quimbo responded, "I would say he was not aware." Quimbo then added that Guzman is actually a good boy who gives to charities and helps little old ladies cross the street in between destroying billions of dollars of other people's property.
Related News: So Little Time, So Many Love-Bug Viruses
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