[free-sklyarov] Hacker

[Austin Hook]

On Mon, 6 Aug 2001, alfee cube wrote:

> im tempted to view it as a judicial slap? anyone want
> to talk me out of this view?

How do you mean? 

A.H.




> --- Austin Hook
> <marvin at qubit.computershop.calgary.ab.ca> wrote:
> > 
> >     Thank god there's a judge with at least some
> > sense. $50K bail in a
> > case like this, is not excessive, especially with
> > the vindictive folks in
> > the fed prosecutors office claiming he is a flight
> > risk.  Bodes well for
> > success of a motion to dismiss later this year.  
> > 
> >     (Correct me if I am wrong, reading the, only
> > $50K bail being granted,
> > as a good sign of what that judge is thinking.)
> > 
> >     Now I think it's time to start deprecating the
> > word hacker where
> > Dmitry is concerned.   Although Dmitry's work is of
> > interest to hackers of
> > both the good and bad types,  when major media uses
> > the work hacker, we
> > know what they mean.  They mean it as in "criminal".
> > 
> > 
> >     What I have seen is that Dmitry is just a
> > serious researcher and
> > programmer, just doing his job, and does not even
> > fit the model of
> > ordinary hacker: the kind who make new programs
> > mostly just for fun,
> > amusement and glory, or creates work arounds, bends
> > software into shape to
> > accomplish something novel, all without violating
> > anyone's copyright much
> > less profiting by distributing "pirated" copies of
> > commercial software, or
> > releasing damaging viruses to the world.  Hacker
> > basically just means
> > someone good enough to "hack" through a jungle of
> > code without an official
> > road map.
> > 
> >     So I think newspapers who use headlines
> > "Hacker... Dmitry ..." should
> > be threatened for suit for defamation, with
> > sufficient remedy being to
> > publish either a retraction, or else a detailed
> > explanation of how
> > "hacker" need not be interpreted as criminal.  This
> > should not be
> > necessary for publications whose targeted readership
> > already knows this,
> > but for publications that are deliberately using the
> > word "hacker",
> > knowing that their readership is ignorant of the
> > fair meaning of "hacker"
> > then, if they are not doing it to defame, they must
> > provide sufficient and
> > constant clarification to their readership what they
> > mean by hacker,
> > sufficient that at least a majority of their
> > readership knows that they
> > are not implying that hacker=criminal, and why a
> > hacker is not a criminal
> > in general.
> > 
> >    I also don't think that "renegade of the year"
> > awards, or such
> > notoriety is appropriate where Dmitry is concerned. 
> > He's just a competent
> > guy doing top notch work, and an innocent victim of
> > unjust interpretations
> > of unjust legislation, visiting what is getting to
> > be an unjust country.  
> > There is no need to draft him into a mould that he
> > doesn't fit, and I
> > don't think it helps his case.  Not that such a fate
> > should happen to a
> > true hacker either.
> > 
> >    We will have plenty of true hackers that will get
> > into trouble if this
> > law sticks around. And there will be plenty of
> > occasion to point out how
> > even non-hackers risk their freedom from this new
> > oppression.
> > 
> > Austin Hook
> > 
> >     
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > _______________________________________________
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> > free-sklyarov at zork.net
> > http://zork.net/mailman/listinfo/free-sklyarov
> 
> 
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