Hello, I want to know if it's illegal to have hacker software such as
a Virus Creator on your computer even if you don't intend to use it to
hack, but to learn how it works. I am a hobbiest programmer for games
and I wanted to try to reverse engineer one of these programs. So if I
buy this program off this website should I expect the FBI at my door
or something?

Though I'm not sure of the wording of specific laws against hacking, I
am sure of one thing: Don't purchase anything that might be illegal.
Especially when you can find plenty of programs for free, just do some
searching for "security utilities" on download.com

If you are serious about the concept of "hacking" as an expression of
curiosity without the intention of harming others or others' property,
then go down to your local big chain bookstore and pay $5 cash for a
little magazine called "2600".

as far as I know, generally, reverse engineering is acceptable.  There
is a specific exemption in the DMCA to allow reverse engineering.

It violates the end user license agreements of many games, but who
knows whether those provisions are legally enforceable.  (regardless
of whether they are -- you aren't going to have cops show up at your
front door for breaking an eula by reverse engineering a game.

http://www.chillingeffects.org/reverse/faq.cgi

Hacking is LEGAL as long as it's on an authorized system.

Yes and no. Stuff like this "Virus Creator" is really iffy. If say you
do something bad, computer related, and they find this program, things
WILL get hairy. Also, generally programs that "make" other programs
with the exception of real development, like visual studio.net, will
generally be a catchall, with an app designed to run certain
proprieary commands, added at the end of the EXE or DLL or whatever,
so using a program like that is unwise in all regards. In reverse
engineering a game, as long as the source code isn't leaked, you are
fine. If you post this code, or even a snippet, or use it in your own
programs, which are distributed, you may have some Feds at your door.
So, don't redistribute it, and you're fine.

Actually having a copy of Virus Creator on your hard drive "should" be
ok.  Of course, I would definitely check on the laws regarding
computer security in your area.  Speak to an information security
trained lawyer, or go to a meeting of CISSPs in your local area.

One thing more: you are running a risk that you might create a virus
that would infect your machine and get out into the wild.  If that
happened, then you would be definitely liable.  I would certainly only
try playing around with it on a spare system that is not connected to
any network at all and that you don't have a problem with reformatting
and rebuilding.

First of all, strictly speaking, a hacker is someone who delights in
having an intimate understanding of the internal workings of a system,
computers and computer networks in particular (source:
://www.google.com.hk/url?sa=X&start=1&oi=define&q=http://www.accuport.com/mazingoref/Glossary.htm),
so hacking do NOT refer to the action that intend to get advantages
from or cause damage to some one by unauthorized access or
inappropiate use of computer resources, instead, such an action is
called "cracking". So, if you really can find some software that help
you "hack" an system, it is definitely legal. In my own experiences,
such "hacking software" would usually be text editors, binary editors,
and even some scripts.

If you repharse your question to ask about the "cracking softwares", I
would say that it is hard to define cracking softwares. Crackers
usually use some program originally created for security purposes to
help cracking an system, one well known example is the nmap utility.
Such softwares are originally designed to analysis the system or
network, for administrators to discover any possible security holes.
So such softwares are also legal to own. There are some programmes,
though, designated to cause damage to system, such as those bomber to
cause DoS attack and those viruses. Owning them are also legel, but
you have to ensure that it won't be used to cause damage to anyone
(excepted those authorized). An anology is that owning a knife is
legal, but if you use the knife to hurt someone, or to scare someone,
it is not the case. You can certainly use the bomber to send yourself
reminder message with appropiate sending frequency set (just joking
:p)

If you have Virus creator (original if exist..) and you use this
program on your Pc nothing bad....
F.B.I. coudn't arrest you only because you want to kill you computer...
also no-cd cheats are legal....
You are in big trouble if you use Virus creator or something similar
on a computer that isn't yours.....

exemple...
I have a friend that play in making virus than he use the virus he
created on his "test" computer an old 486 (pre-pentium machine)...
He have fun in meltdown his old Pc...

but it's legal trust me...
Problem starts if you use this program to violate othar peaple privacy
or make damage on a not-yours Pc....