O
F
V
IRUSES AND
V
ICTIMS
: F
RAMING THE
I
NTERNET
, 1988-1990 10
need for more extreme, totalizing measures such as counter offensives and all-out war.
Biological, crime, and military metaphors all suggest technological control issues
and anxiety about new technologies. The results of Morris’s virus questioned the level of
control that Morris – or any other human, for that matter – could exercise over the virus,
which “plagued” the system. Control issues were further amplified by an accident frame,
which portrayed the “Frankenstein” virus as “running amok” and “wildly out of control.”
The implication of the accident frame is that the Internet is another catastrophe waiting to
happen, another Three Mile Island. The accident frame also involves the personification
of the technology, in which Morris’ virus, once released, operates of its own volition,
attempting to “steal” computer passwords. The accident discourse disassociates the
technology from its creator, leaving the technology as an independent agent, and reduces
Morris to the level of victim himself, an issue that may have affected his sentencing.
Balancing the accident frame to a degree is a scientific frame, which refers to Morris’s
activities as an “experiment.” This frame suggests a greater degree of control, but it is
negligible relative to the other frames.
One final frame also tends to minimize Morris’ responsibility for creating and
disseminating the virus. This frame tends to take into account Morris’ age (he was 21 at
the time) and his status as a college student. In this benign frame, the release of the virus
is referred to as a “stunt” or “prank,” just one of those things that college students do.
News stories using this frame tend to portray Morris as the “author” or “creator” of the
virus, rather than the “intruder” common in the early stories, before Morris was identified
as the individual who sent out the virus. Many stories depict Morris as a “brilliant”
college student who created the virus as an “intellectual challenge.” Morris’ father, head
Convention