Re: hackerism?

[Jason Castonguay <castongj@wam.umd.edu>]

[: hacktivism :]

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1

On Sun, 31 Oct 1999, Me Uh, K. wrote:

> When compared to their real-world counterparts, don't
> both the activities count as (hacktavism) activism?
> (or, at the very least, hackerism)

My inclusion of "DoS'ing someone" was trying to point out the
difference between 'win-nuking' someone you don't like on irc vs. syn
flooding a multi-national arms dealer's server. The former of the two is
not hacktivism, while the later is. The same thing goes for changing a web
page.

> Another point, one we've probably already covered in
> this thread (in one of those 60 or so emails I haven't
> gotten to), is terrorism through hacking really that
> bad a thing?

I think so. By terrorism, you mean "the systematic use of violence as a
means to intimidate or coerce societies or governments "? ie. Trying
to prevent a air trafic control tower from operating in order to cause
planes to crash. That is an unacceptable action, IMO.

If you mean disrupting a totalitarian government's communications in order
to prevent them from opressing people, I think it could be a form of
hacktivism, and is not terrorism. The idea is non-violent action.
 
> Do I just have my definitions wrong? (it does seem to
> be the primary problem with the list - the lack of a
> definition)  Am I counting things as hackerism that
> really fall under the domain of hacktavism? (or
> vice-versa)
> 
> -mia k. (insert witty comment here)

I would recomend refraining from the term 'hackerism'. If something is
terrorism, call it terrorism. I think the discrepancy between terms and
the lack of agreed meaning will only cause problems. At least this list
doesn't get in to that stupid hacker / cracker fight, I'd hate to see a
hacktivism / hackerism one. Esp. because hackerism does have a different
meaning to some people. If I say 'kludge' and someone asks me what it
means, I'll say that "it is a hackerism for a fix that works, but
probably shouldn't", or something to that effect.

I think most people basicly understand the term 'hacktivism.'

deathcubek
- --
Jason Castonguay	castongj@bigfoot.com	

Stop the Microsofting of our schools.
Don't let education get a blue screen of death.
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----

iD8DBQE4HPSdS0famjvCzSwRAvGBAJ4n5tdf3jx45ejrtsTucMicC8zJ4QCcDfHc
9R22k+6Wh397lFCcManPsys=
=fE+E
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----


[: hacktivism :]
[: for unsubscribe instructions or list info consult the list FAQ :]
[: http://hacktivism.tao.ca/ :]