[HN Gopher] Is Computer Hacking a Crime? (1989) [pdf]
       ___________________________________________________________________
        
       Is Computer Hacking a Crime? (1989) [pdf]
        
       Author : solomonb
       Score  : 33 points
       Date   : 2023-08-24 13:19 UTC (9 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (faculty.weber.edu)
 (TXT) w3m dump (faculty.weber.edu)
        
       | forinti wrote:
       | They still hadn't had to ponder the possibility of it being
       | illegal to hack stuff (you think) you own.
       | 
       | The law expands to allow capitalism to grow.
        
       | barbariangrunge wrote:
       | Not since the hackers discovered you could just put up a eula or
       | privacy policy first
        
         | Terr_ wrote:
         | "By continuing to use this Awesomely Pwned Machine you agree to
         | hold blameless and indemnify Leet Haxor from any past
         | inconvenience..."
        
       | tptacek wrote:
       | John Perry Barlow, from this transcript: "Driving 110 miles per
       | hour on Main Street is a common symptom of rural adolescence,
       | publicly denounced but privately understood."
        
       | NoMoreNicksLeft wrote:
       | I thought the CFAA was 1986ish. That anyone could believe it up
       | for debate in 1989 is a little silly... or did it take a couple
       | decades of case law to give CFAA teeth?
        
         | tptacek wrote:
         | This is a normative discussion, not a positive one.
        
       | solomonb wrote:
       | In Fred Turner's "From Counterculture to Cyberculture", Turner
       | contrasts the perspectives of John Perry Barlow and Lee
       | Felsenstein as the old guard of cybernetic counterculturalists
       | versus Acid Phreak and Fiber optik as the new guard of modern
       | hackers:
       | 
       | > When they joined the discussion on the WELL, Phreak and Optik
       | immediately set off a culture clash. The conflict could be seen
       | clearly in the edited version of the forum eventually printed in
       | Harper's. Like the online forum, and like it's predecessor, The
       | Hackers' Conference of 1984, the conversation opened with a
       | discussion of the hacker ethic. WELL regulars described the ethic
       | in cybernetic and countercultural terms familiar to their online
       | colleagues. Lee Felsenstein compared hackers to the "Angelheaded
       | hipsters" of Allen Ginsberg's poem "Howl." John Perry Barlow
       | described them as solitary inventors designing a system through
       | which humans woule acquire the simultaneous unity of other
       | "collective organisms." Acid Phreak would have none of it. "There
       | is no one hacker ethic," he wrote. "Everyone has his own. To say
       | that we all think the same way is preposterous." Among WELL
       | regulars like Felsenstein and Barlow, hackers were cybernetic
       | counter-culturalists, creatures devoted to establishing a new,
       | more open culture by any electronic means necessary. For Acid
       | Phreak, the hackers were break-in artists devoted to exploring
       | and exploiting weaknesses in closed and especially corporate
       | systems.
       | 
       | I would be really interested to hear how the perspectives of the
       | surviving participants in this conversation have evolved.
        
       | factorymoo wrote:
       | Interesting to see the perspectives from early hacking pioneers.
       | Seems like some things haven't changed much - debates over ethics
       | of unauthorized access, whether it's criminal, free speech
       | implications, etc. But more nuance now as hacking's gone more
       | mainstream.
       | 
       | Biggest change is probably threat models. In 1990 main concern
       | was individuals hacking systems for challenge, curiosity, etc.
       | Today it's nation-states and organized crime using hacking for
       | financial gain, espionage, even kinetic attacks.
       | 
       | Other change is commercialization/professionalization of hacking.
       | Now huge industry around cybersecurity, ethical hacking, bug
       | bounties. Hacking skills lead to lucrative careers, not just
       | hobby or activism.
       | 
       | More diversity today too - no longer just male techies. But part
       | of cyberpunk spirit remains, even as hacking's become bigger
       | business and political issue.
        
       ___________________________________________________________________
       (page generated 2023-08-24 23:00 UTC)