Hackerethik
- Access to computers – and anything which might teach you something about the way the world really works – should be unlimited and total. Always yield to the Hands-On Imperative!
- All information should be free.
- Mistrust authority – promote decentralization.
- Hackers should be judged by their acting, not bogus criteria such as degrees, age, race, or position.
- You can create art and beauty on a computer.
- Computers can change your life for the better.
- Don’t litter other people’s data.
- Make public data available, protect private data.
The last two point are additions by the CCC from the 80s. After some more or less crazy individuals from the hacker scene had the idea of offering their “hacker know-how” to the KGB there were intense discussions, three letter agencies have a somewhat different opinion about freedom of information. As well were intrusions into outside systems considered more and more counter productive.
To protect the privacy of the individual and to strengthen the freedom of the information which concern the public the yet last point was added.
Hacker ethics are —like the rest of the world— as such in constant discussion and development. The above rules should be considered as guidelines and basis for discussion.
