Ethics of hacking !

11:48 π.μ. scienceddicted 1 Comments



Ok, let's start by asking yourself if hacking is ethical. No, don't continue reading, just take a minute to think about it..



Now let's describe the culture of hackers. Ι think the most classic description of this culture is the one that Sherry Turkle gives at the "The Second Self: Computers and the Human Spirit" where hackers are users who don't treat computers as tools, but they are guided by an enthusiasm for the process and not just for the result! Hackers in 1970 were somehow connected with the amateur hobbyists, who usually had a small professional experience by working as technicians or electrical engineers, but the element of experimentation with technology belonged more in the field of electronics than mechanics and of course that's why the announcement of the first personal computer was made in the magazine "Popular Electronics". So hackers wanted to use computers at their own space as they did at their jobs or univirsities for their own purposes, which include the understanding of the internal functions. 

One of the major points of the history of hackers is their belief about the "release of computer's power", something that would be achieved with free software. For a software is very important to understand the difference between "owing", "having" and "using". When IBM presented in 1953the first computer -the model 701, the term "software" hadn't been invented and the manufacturers of computers were not claiming copyrights for their programs, as these related only with artistic and literary works. Nevertheless when the first "software packages" arrived, they were available for every independent company, and that was the beggining for turning a software to a common product. 

When personal computers began to be used by amateurs, were created organized communities like "Homebrew Computer Club" at Alto of California, where the copying software started to be introduced as a popular practice among these users. A well-known incident was the publication of an article by David Bunnell at Micro Instrumentation and Telemetry Systems( MITS) where the writer complained that some users copy the MITCH BASIC for resaling it to friends since there are no copyrights to protect the inventor.At this time hobbyists used to buy the Altair 8800 computer from MITS, and use the copies from Altair BASIC, avoiding the complete package offered by the company. However in 1965 the chairman of MITS refused the reader's request for free disposal of BASIC by declaring that anyone who use the stolen copy of MITS BASIC is a thief. Of course Bill Gates accused amateur users that they are stealing him with the same way.




So, if hacking is stealing, then is certainly not ethical. But what Bunnell and Gates said, represent a totally speculative opinion, which is trying in every way to protect many economic interests. To be honest if you were the inventor of a software, you definitely wouldn't like the idea of someone else making money with your own product. But that's exactly the key of the story. Hackers were not trying to make money by the copies they made. They were just interested to invest the various technical informations and share this knowledge for making something new, something even better.All these communities were created for only one reason: to learn. This whole trend for experimentation was based on an open software context, where there wasn't any law forbidding the hacking. Moreover, there are many times where hobbyist were doing the job of a programmer, and that's why they formed an important link in the production line of software.Having a software means that someone gave it to you, or you just bought it. On the other hand owing a software means that the program you are using has been updated from you by making technical interventions that noone else did in the past. So programming evolution would be nothing without the element of intervention. The percentage of those who were involved with hacking for clearly speculative purposes was so small that naturally outweighed the benefits offered by hackers in the field of programming. Besides, would programming has had this power today if hackers didn't exist? 


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