Challenges
Please believe us when we say that we don't intentionally set out to cause trouble and mayhem; they somehow seem to always find us.
We started a hacker magazine because it was a subject that was of interest to a number of us and there was a void to be filled. We didn't expect the fascination, fear, obsession, and demonization that followed us, courtesy of everyone from the media to the government, from the Fortune 500 to high school teachers and principals. It just sort of happened that way.
We didn't ask to be thrown into the front lines of the motion picture industry's copyright battles back in 2000. That also just happened because of who we were and what we believed in. There were many thousands that the (((Motion Picture Association of America))) could have taken to court for hosting the DeCSS code on their web sites. But we somehow epitomized everything the MPAA was against and this made us the perfect target for them. Merely existing apparently was enough.
And by simply being present at various pivotal moments in hacker history where there was nothing for us to do but speak out against various injustices, we again found ourselves being propelled into a position of advocacy and leadership, when really all we were doing was continuing to make the same points on what hacking was and what it was not. Locking people in prison for being overly curious or experimenting on the wrong bits of technology was just wrong, plain and simple. It was a point we had started our very first issue with. And since so few others were saying this out loud, it became our fight once more.
This kind of thing never seems to end. Also in the year 2000 while all eyes were on the Republican National Convention in Philadelphia, it was our own layout artist who was grabbed off the streets and locked up on $500,000 bail, charged with being a chief ringleader of opposition. The only evidence against him was surveillance footage that showed him walking down a street talking on a cell phone. Needless to say, it didn't stick and, in fact, a lawsuit against the city for this nonsense was quite successful. But even that wasn't the final chapter of the story.
Four years later in New York, our editor was also taken off the streets while the Republican National Convention was in that city. This time it seemed to be a random sweep of people who just happened to be standing on a particular block. Again, it provoked widespread outrage and condemnation, as well as all charges being dropped and a lawsuit which continues to be argued in court to this day. But there's still more.
Recently a judge ordered the New York Police Department (NYPD) to release internal documents on these events, which they had been trying to keep to themselves. These documents started to see the light of day in February of this year. And among the first to be revealed so far is a memo that outlines what one of their biggest fears was. Yes, that's right. Us again.
Apparently the NYPD was concerned because not only was our layout artist rumored to be in town (possibly prepared to use his phone again) but he had spoken at a conference directly across the street from where the Republican Convention was to be held. And he had spoken on potential ways of causing mischief and mayhem! So once again we were catapulted to front and center, just for discussing the things that are of interest to us. Even the location of our conferences, held in the same place since 1994, was called into question as being provocative because they were so close to the site of the Republican Convention.
It all almost reads like a bad TV script, where the same characters keep getting launched into the center of attention week after week. In that kind of a setting, this happens because there are only a certain number of characters and the story lines have to be kept interesting and active. In real life, this only serves to demonstrate the threat of actually reaching people who may share your interests and goals. Not only can you change the course of history in accomplishing this but the fear you instill along the way among the powers-that-be might itself also have a profound effect on the outcome. Scary stuff indeed.
But now we find ourselves yet again in a position where we have no choice but to take a stand and help start something that could have a profound effect on a lot of people. And this time it goes well beyond the hacker community. We learned earlier this year that the site of our conferences mentioned above New York's historic Hotel Pennsylvania is set to be demolished. As of this writing, the only opposition to this has been a whole lot of voices in the wilderness with no apparent unity. So once more it appears that our community will have to step up and hopefully make a difference.
Why should we care? Simple. Ever since starting the Hackers On Planet Earth conferences back in 1994, the Hotel Pennsylvania has been our home (with the exception of Beyond HOPE in 1997). It has three major factors going for it:
- Location the hotel is directly across the street from the busiest train station in North America and also centrally located in Manhattan.
- History the hotel is a fascinating connection to the past, both architecturally and in the many events and people who have been linked together over the decades in its vast hallways.
- Cost the relative cheapness of the hotel is what makes it possible for us to continue to have the conferences in New York City as well as for our attendees from out of town to be able to stay there.
There was one thing that was drummed into our heads over and over again when we were looking to start a major hacker conference in the United States, especially in response to our desire to have it in New York: It was impossible. And to this day it remains impossible that we could hold an event of this size in a city like New York and manage to keep it affordable. But we do it anyway. It's because of a combination of magical ideas, the magical people who come and build it every two years, and the magical place that makes it all possible. This is all most definitely worth preserving.
In the "real word" however, people don't think like this. It all comes down to dollars and cents and how to make the most impressive profit. And those in charge (namely (((Vornado))), the realty firm that happens to own the hotel) felt it would be most profitable to tear down the hotel and replace it with a huge financial tower. Those in the finance industry would no longer have to ride the subway downtown to get to work. Instead they could commute from the suburbs by train, exit Penn Station, and simply walk across the street to their jobs. And everyone leaving Penn Station would wind up being barraged with a "Times Square-style" wall of advertising that would replace the ornate entryway of the existing hotel.
So the financial industry and the advertisers would be thrilled. But the people who visit New York City would have one less affordable hotel to stay in (the nearly 2000 rooms in Hotel Pennsylvania are often filled year round) and one more historic structure would be destroyed. This doesn't even address the overwhelming belief that such a massive financial structure simply isn't needed with the entire financial district downtown being rebuilt. Were it to be constructed, however, there is little doubt that it would become a heavily guarded fortress with very limited accessibility due to post-9/11 syndrome, in stark contrast to the open and bustling hotel lobby that currently occupies the space.
We know the hotel isn't in the finest of shape. In this age of "bigger is better" and insisting that every modern convenience be within reaching distance at all times, there are many who simply cannot handle a place with such Old World decor. But it's still our home and we've grown rather attached to it. Without it, the future of the HOPE conferences would be very much in jeopardy and certainly not as convenient to get to for those from out of town. And this is the key. The majority of people affected by its destruction would likely be people who don't live locally and have probably not even heard of these ominous plans yet. That is something we can change.
We also have to realize that this is so much bigger than our own relatively small community. There are scores of other conferences and literally millions of people who have walked through the doors and gotten something out of the place. By linking as many of them together as possible, we have the potential of uniting forces and, at the very least, speaking out loudly against losing this hotel. It seems as if this has become our obligation. And, as history has shown us, being who you are at a particular place and point in time is sometimes all you need.
The odds are certainly against us. And this is likely to be a fight that we're involved in for quite some time to come. But we believe getting involved in this could be an uplifting experience, one where we truly realize the importance of individual voices brought together in a common cause. There will be lots more on this in the future. For now, we hope you can join us online at talk.hope.net to discuss ways to save the hotel (and plan for future HOPE conferences) in a lively forum environment. And we hope everyone can help us spread the word.