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In modern parlance, the hacker ethic is either:
- the belief that information-sharing is a powerful positive good, and that it is an ethical duty of hackers to share their expertise by writing free software and facilitating access to information and computing resources wherever possible; and/or
- the belief that system cracking for fun and exploration is ethically acceptable as long as the hacker commits no theft, vandalism, or breach of confidentiality.
Both of these normative ethical principles are widely, but by no means universally, accepted among hackers. The first, and arguably the second, emerged from the MIT Artificial Intelligence Laboratory during the '60s and '70s.
Most hackers subscribe to the hacker ethic in the first sense, and many act on it by writing free software, giving the user permission to study, modify, and redistribute it. A few, such as the Free Software Foundation, go further and assert that it is immoral to prevent computer users from sharing or altering software, as is typical with proprietary software.
The second sense is more controversial: some people consider the act of cracking afoul of the government itself to be unethical, like breaking and entering into an office. But the belief that 'ethical' cracking excludes destruction at least moderates the behavior of people who see themselves as 'benign' crackers (see also samurai, grey hat). On this view, it may be one of the highest forms of hacker courtesy to (a) break into a system, and then (b) explain to the SysOp, preferably by email from a superuser account, exactly how it was done and how the hole can be plugged; effectively acting as an unpaid (and unsolicited) tiger team.
The most reliable manifestation of either version of the hacker ethic is that almost all hackers are actively willing to share technical tricks, software, and (where possible) computing resources with other hackers. Huge cooperative networks such as Usenet, FidoNet and the Internet itself can function without central control because of this trait; they both rely on and reinforce a sense of community that may be hackerdom's most valuable intangible asset.
Origins and history
The term "hacker ethic" was coined by journalist Steven Levy and used for the first time in Heroes of the Computer Revolution#Hacker ethic (1984). In Levy's account of the hacker ethic is in large parts based on the values of the "old school" hackers at MIT Artificial Intelligence Laboratory. Among these hackers were Richard M. Stallman, whom Levy at the time called the last true hacker. The similarities between the Hacker Ethic and values existing in open scientific communities is, therefore, no coincidence.
In Levy's codification, the principles of the Hacker Ethic were:
- Access to computers—and anything which might teach you something about the way the world works—should be unlimited and total. Always yield to the Hands-on Imperative!
- All information should be free.
- Mistrust authority—promote decentralization.
- Hackers should be judged by their hacking, not bogus criteria such as degrees, age, race, or position.
- You can create art and beauty on a computer.
- Computers can change your life for the better.
Written on January 8th, 1986 by a hacker with the handle "The Mentor", 'The Hacker Manifesto' illustrates some of the commonly held philosphies of hacker ethic. Hacker ethic itself is typically a discussion arising in reference to the definition of a hacker as an individual capable and willing to infiltrate, exploit, or otherwise bypass security restrictions for some purpose. It is the intentions of the hacker, and their purpose which are deemed either ethical, or unethical based on the so called hacker ethic. Note, hackers themselves tend to have little patience for incompetance, hence, were one to damage a system in an attempt to infiltrate it, even with good intentions, it may be considered somewhat unethical in that an individual without the necessary skill to accomplish the task at hand, would be deemed unfit to take on the responsibility. The Hacker Manifesto was written to give somewhat of an insight into the motivations of a hacker, which is closely related to the so called hacker ethic. Essentially it served as an argument that, though a hacker may break the law, their intentions may still be entirely good natured, purposeful, beneficial, and otherwise ethical.
See also
Books and media
- Heroes of the Computer Revolution
- Pekka Himanen, The Hacker Ethic and the Spirit of the Information Age, ISBN 0375505660
External links
- Ethical Hacking Blog
- Enid Gabriella Coleman, an anthropologist at the University of Chicago, has written extensively on the hacker ethic and culture *
- Tom Chance, The Hacker Ethic and Meaningful Work
- Hacker ethic from the Jargon file
"Hacker ethic"