I must admit that in few stories that I conceive of or write would a lawyer ever be the hero. I suspect that I have been involved in too many lawsuits (one was too many) to tend towards that point of view. And yet in the story this week from DVForge, I find myself reexamining that opinion.

In case you missed it, a company called DVForge basically bet that someone could not write a virus for the Mac, release it into the wild and infect two particular machines. The first person to write such a virus would collect $25,000. That was the plan until one day later when one of the lawyers for DVForge explained to the president of the company that he was one diet coke short of a six pack and one fry short of a happy meal. Not to put to fine a point on it but CEO Jack Campbell is a raving looney if he ever thought that was a good idea. Among the things that your mother is supposed to teach you at an early age is that you don’t shout “fire” in a crowded theater, you don’t tug on superman’s cape and you don’t dare people to write viruses for operating systems that you actually care about.

I understand that Mr Campbell was upset at a report from Symantec that said “It is now clear that the Mac OS is increasingly becoming a target for the malicious activity that is more commonly associated with Microsoft and various Unix-based operating systems”. I also understand that the statement from Symantec is largely regarded as self-serving and doo-doo. But still, Jack… Jack… Jack… Jack.

It is not good to taunt the enemy. Need I remind you of the last words of Civil War General General John B. Sedgwick: “They couldn’t hit an elephant at this dist…”.