A virus is a program that copies itself. That's the definition of a virus. In retrospect, it's unfortunate that the word `virus' was used; it makes the problem sound a lot worse than it is, and people get the plural wrong [the plural is not `viri', or even `virii', it's `viruses']. It might have been better to use the word `weed'. But we're stuck with `virus'.
A virus need do no more than replicate in order to be a virus. Indeed, 95% of viruses do no more than that, plus some trivial extra like beeping the keyboard, or displaying a message. And conversely, if a program does something nasty that you weren't expecting, that doesn't make it a virus, unless it replicates. Such a program is called a `trojan', after the famous horse of Troy.
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