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hacker ethic
(foldoc) | hacker ethic
1. 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 to computing resources
wherever possible.
2. The belief that system-cracking for fun and exploration is
ethically OK as long as the cracker commits no theft,
vandalism, or breach of confidentiality.
Both of these normative ethical principles are widely, but by
no means universally, accepted among hackers. Most hackers
subscribe to the hacker ethic in sense 1, and many act on it
by writing and giving away free software. A few go further
and assert that *all* information should be free and *any*
proprietary control of it is bad; this is the philosophy
behind the GNU project.
Sense 2 is more controversial: some people consider the act of
cracking itself to be unethical, like breaking and entering.
But the belief that "ethical" cracking excludes destruction at
least moderates the behaviour of people who see themselves as
"benign" crackers (see also samurai). On this view, it may
be one of the highest forms of hackerly courtesy to (a) break
into a system, and then (b) explain to the sysop, preferably
by e-mail from a superuser account, exactly how it was done
and how the hole can be plugged - 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 Internet (see
Internet address) 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.
(1995-12-18)
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hacker ethic
(jargon) | hacker ethic
n.
1. 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
open-source code and facilitating access to information and to computing
resources wherever possible.
2. The belief that system-cracking for fun and exploration is ethically OK
as long as the cracker commits no theft, vandalism, or breach of
confidentiality.
Both of these normative ethical principles are widely, but by no means
universally, accepted among hackers. Most hackers subscribe to the hacker
ethic in sense 1, and many act on it by writing and giving away open-source
software. A few go further and assert that all information should be free
and any proprietary control of it is bad; this is the philosophy behind the
GNU project.
Sense 2 is more controversial: some people consider the act of cracking
itself to be unethical, like breaking and entering. But the belief that
‘ethical’ cracking excludes destruction at least moderates the behavior of
people who see themselves as ‘benign’ crackers (see also samurai, {gray
hat}). On this view, it may be one of the highest forms of hackerly
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 — 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.
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