hacker != cracker (Re: Swartz, Weev & radical libertarian lexicon)

[James A. Donald]

On 2014-01-08 07:20, Adam Back wrote:
> Hacker in the sense of cracker was a later and much hated co-option and
> perversion of the term.  I expect that's what Rysiek was reacting to
> partly.

The term hacker first appears 1975 - 1985, shortly after the start of 
the information epoch, the age of information starting by convention 
1972 January first.

The term was originally an epithet, but not for criminal behavior:

http://books.google.com/books?id=vpGNJfMmFswC&pg=PA32

At that time, 1980, a hacker was someone who programs for entertainment 
- badly.

In 1983, http://books.google.com/books?id=dGloQlpCO_4C&pg=PA532 a hacker 
is someone whose interest in programming has damaging consequences for 
his social life and social skills, but he is a very good programmer.

Then we hear that the original hacker was the phone phreak captain 
crunch, implying that a hacker is someone who breaks into other people's 
systems to take control of other people's stuff, generally to give 
himself free stuff.

"High noon on the electronic frontier", a 1996 book, talks about 
rehabilitating the term, and complains that "hacker" "carries the image 
of persons who are dangerous" (page 151)

So, evidently, the term was in need of rehabilitation.

In 1996, esr owns the term, and gives it a positive meaning.

So, hackers were something bad, then something criminal, and then, in 
1996, we had a hacker pride movement, with esr as the key figure.

Hence, esr, for all his faults, is generally regarded as the prophet of 
the programming subculture.

But, before he was prophet, needed his people to be in bondage so that 
he could lead them out of bondage.