my parents.'

The Spanish court is currently considering what charges to press. Antonio's lawyer, Javier Maestre, argued that the worm had no dangerous payload and did no damage to any of the computers it infected. He suspects Antonio is being targeted by the police, who want to pretend they've made an important cyberbust, and by an antivirus company seeking publicity.

Artificial life can spin out of control, and when it does, it can take real life with it. Antonio says he did not actually intend to release his worm at all. The worm spreads by scanning computers for the Blaster vulnerability, then sending a copy of itself to any open target. Antonio maintains he thought he was playing it safe, because his computer was not directly connected to the internet. His roommate's computer had the internet connection, and a local network, a set of cables connecting their computers together, allowed Antonio to share the signal.

But what Antonio didn't realise, he says, was that his worm would regard his friend's computer as a foreign target. It spawned a copy of itself in his friend's machine. From there, it leapfrogged on to the internet - and out into the wild. His creation had come to life and, like Frankenstein's monster, decided upon a path of its own.

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