[plug] re: Hacker Contest

[Bret Busby]

On Fri, 4 Jul 2003, James Devenish wrote:

> Date: Fri, 4 Jul 2003 16:13:56 +0800
> From: James Devenish <devenish at guild.uwa.edu.au>
> Reply-To: plug at plug.linux.org.au
> To: plug at plug.linux.org.au
> Subject: Re: [plug] re: Hacker Contest
> Resent-Date: Fri,  4 Jul 2003 16:14:07 +0800 (WST)
> Resent-From: plug at plug.linux.org.au
> 
> In message <Pine.LNX.4.44.0307041554460.1683-100000 at BBRH73.busby.net>
> on Fri, Jul 04, 2003 at 04:00:39PM +0800, Bret Busby wrote:
> > confused by the use of the word "hacker", which I understand to
> > be the name of the type of people that brought us Linux...
> 
> It's always hard to argue this one with most people. A bit like "doctor"
> versus <insert other> or "lawyer" versus <insert other>. Since "hackers"
> are a "superfamily" of users, "crackers" (or whatever you want to call
> them) are certainly within that family. So it's sometimes hard to know
> whether someone is confused or not. Then again, describing something as
> having been "hacked" when you mean "cracked" is almost certainly
> terrible usage. But "hack" (noun) is probably fair game with regards to
> "good" and "bad" usage.
> 
> 

I generally try to use words such as "breached" or "violated", to 
describe a computer system that has suffered unauthorised access, as the 
security of the system has been breached or violated.

Perhaps, with the technology and the Internet causing changes to the 
language, the words "burgled", "burglary", and "burglars", could be 
"overloaded", to refer to intentional security breaches of computer 
systems.

.....

burglar - person who commits burglary..(....rel. to OF burgier - 
pillage)

burglary - 1. entry into a building illegally with intent to commit 
theft, do bodily harm, or do damage. 2 an instance of this. (cf. 
housebreaking)

- from Concise Oxford Dictionary 8th Edition, 1990
.....

Jeremy (if you are still on the list) - as our resident lawyer kind of 
person, and, champion of the free... what chance do you think, of us 
getting a defined crime of "computer burglary", referring to 
unauthorised computer access, whether manually, or by virus or by worm?

Perhaps, that could be an issue for Bian Grieg, apart from the open 
source thing - to come up with a defined federal crime of "computer 
burglary", to be inserted in the federal Crimes Act.