A code of conduct for young hackers

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One law for the lion & ox is oppression.

When did hacking get neutered?

“- Only hack things you own”
Agreed. My hardware, my rules.

“- Do not hack anything you rely on”
solely on is better phrasing. If you can get a dupe, go for it.

“- Respect the rights of others”
Agreed

“- Know and respect the law”
Know yes, respect? Respect the law that prosecuted Schwartz? Or the one that makes hacking my own hardware (jailbreaking) illegal? I don’t think so.

ROFL. I would be offended at these rules, if I wasn’t confident they would be gleefully disregarded and/or broken by any young hacker worth his/her salt.

Maybe that’s the real purpose this code serves: to weed out those with insufficiently strong spirits.

"Do you let old people set the rules about things they don’t understand? Do you accept the arbitrary authority of the legal system and corporate property rights? Great! You’re a perfect fit for our inane non-profit which tries to promote technical creativity in the youth while counteracting the nasty anti-establishment sentiment that tends to accompany it.

The rest of you kids: you’ll get no help from the adults. Go raise hell, lord knows we need it."

You can probably not word a code of conduct without someone finding an exception based on your exact wording, rather than what you meant. Those were good words. If you read them and go ahead anyhow, then at least you mean it and you deerve the consequences.

Here is a quote form Aldous Huxley. You may already know it, but I met for the first time a few days ago…

"It is a bit embarrassing to have been concerned with the human problem all one’s life and find at the end that one has no more to offer by way of advice than “Try to be a little kinder.”

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If it’s a dupe then it’s not something you rely on.

and

Respect =/= follow.

I applaud their goals, but better writing would make clearer statements and leave less room for interpretation.

The Huxley quote is nice, but it deals with sentiment rather than fundamentals. They do relate, but you have to compare like with like.

It didn’t. It just has an acceptable face now.

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