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That's hardly fair to the MIT hackers. Hacking != phreaking. Hacking ∉ inherently malicious acts. Any legally-questionable thing the MIT hackers did was either
by Tiomaidh 15y ago
That's hardly fair to the MIT hackers. Hacking != phreaking. Hacking ∉ inherently malicious acts.
Any legally-questionable thing the MIT hackers did was either because a) They were really fascinated in the system (the phone hacks they did do were not to screw over the phone company, but rather to see how the phone system was put together). b) They felt that something was inhibiting their ability to hack efficiently (see also: The Midnight Computer Wiring Society that (illegally) rewired the TX-0 to have more instructions; all the lock hacking that took place since "Information Wants to be Free"...)
And the hacking of MIT and rms and esr and HN is at best tangentially related to the PlayStation cracking that's been taking place.
- revorad 15y agoUnfortunately, outside the hacker community, the word hacker only equals cracker. I don't think we'll get the word back.
- Tiomaidh 15y agoThat's a separate issue. The article, IMHO, both maligns the MIT hackers (saying they were more malicious than they were) and then draws incorrect parallels between the MIT hackers of then and the hackers/crackers of today.
- hugh3 15y agoYeah, but if you're writing a "history of hacking" article you should cover the question of how the meaning of the word has changed over time.