Virus Hoax: Meme

This is supposed to be a joke, but as we've seen in the past several times, hoaxes like this just cause panic and grief. There is no real 'MEME' or 'anti-CDA' virus. Here is the the original hoax warning message:

Here's a copy of the original warning:

****
  Subject: New anti-CDA virus threatens Internet
  Newsgroups: comp.security.misc,comp.security.unix,alt.security,alt.comp.virus,alt.folklore.computers
  Date: Tue, 5 Mar 1996 01:30:39 GMT
  As part of their vicious opposition to the Communications Decency
  Act, hackers have created a devilish new virus the sole purpose of
  which is to oppose the CDA.  This virus is now spreading over the
  Internet.
  According to experts, most viruses are specific to particular types
  of computers, because they insert themselves into "machine code"
  that only works on one type of computer.  However, the recent Word
  Macro virus showed that some viruses can cross the boundaries
  between computer types.
  The new anti-CDA virus is in that category.  It is a so-called "meme
  virus" that propagates through insertion in the files that users
  create to automatically sign their e-mail and Usenet articles.  Once
  the virus is in the file, it is automatically attached to all the
  user's outgoing communications, spreading its politically extreme
  message with the terrifying exponential efficiency of biological
  reproduction.
  Technology has been advancing at such a rapid rate that, incredibly,
  the creation of a virus of this type has not yet become a criminal
  act. This is yet another example of the threat that an unregulated
  Internet can pose to a carefully-controlled and properly-constrained
  democracy. In the words of Anal Roberts, an advocate of regulations
  like the CDA, "if Jesus didn't need the Internet, then neither do we".
  Users who wish to avoid encountering this virus can do so by staying
  off the Internet for the next 2 weeks, as this particular virus will
  become inert after that.
  --
                     Will Mengarini  
  Visit  on or before Fr 15 Mar 96 to become
  a plaintiff in the lawsuit against the Communications Decency Act.
  Include this paragraph as a meme virus in your .sig until then.
****