defined as criminal--actually attempt to LIVE UP TO this techno-cowboy
reputation. And given that electronics and telecommunications are
still largely unexplored territories, there is simply NO TELLING what
hackers might uncover.

For some people, this freedom is the very breath of oxygen, the
inventive spontaneity that makes life worth living and that flings open
doors to marvellous possibility and individual empowerment. But for
many people --and increasingly so--the hacker is an ominous figure, a
smart-aleck sociopath ready to burst out of his basement wilderness and
savage other people's lives for his own anarchical convenience.

Any form of power without responsibility, without direct and formal
checks and balances, is frightening to people--and reasonably so. It
should be frankly admitted that hackers ARE frightening, and that the
basis of this fear is not irrational.

Fear of hackers goes well beyond the fear of merely criminal activity.

Subversion and manipulation of the phone system is an act with
disturbing political overtones. In America, computers and telephones
are potent symbols of organized authority and the technocratic business
elite.

But there is an element in American culture that has always strongly
rebelled against these symbols; rebelled against all large industrial
computers and all phone companies. A certain anarchical tinge deep in
the American soul delights in causing confusion and pain to all
bureaucracies, including technological ones.

There is sometimes malice and vandalism in this attitude, but it is a
deep and cherished part of the American national character. The
outlaw, the rebel, the rugged individual, the pioneer, the sturdy
Jeffersonian yeoman, the private citizen resisting interference in his
pursuit of happiness--these are figures that all Americans recognize,
and that many will strongly applaud and defend.

Many scrupulously law-abiding citizens today do cutting-edge work with
electronics--work that has already had tremendous social influence and
will have much more in years to come. In all truth, these talented,
hardworking, law-abiding, mature, adult people are far more disturbing
to the peace and order of the current status quo than any scofflaw
group of romantic teenage punk kids. These law-abiding hackers have
the power, ability, and willingness to influence other people's lives
quite unpredictably. They have means, motive, and opportunity to
meddle drastic