The hacker underground is a difficult thing to define. There are so many facets to it, the technology combining it as a whole. There is the Unix type hacker, the cellular hackers, the hardware guys, the radio guys, the warez dudes, the software crackers, the coders, there are the phreakers who are mostly interested in the phone system and how it works...but then its all inter-related. So most people know something about many areas and then specialise in one area. There are also alot of young hackers that don't really know how things work but they know how to run the programs that the really good hackers write. So what is it that binds all these people together? Information...

Hackers are interested in information, and knowledge. The hacker underground exchanges information in a variety of different ways. `Information wants to be free' is a slogan that pops up again and again in magazines like 2600 © The Hacker Quarterly, and on various BBS's throughout the underground. Whether it should be free is debated by those outside the underground, but the information itself, whether its copyrighted or not is passed back and forth in the hacker underground. Accounts are exchanged, the latest software is copied and the more knowledgeable share with the less knowledgeable. Many people write text files about various subjects. Cell phones, How to build a red box, How phone switching works, etc and then post them on underground BBS's or publish them in Phrack (an electronic zine) or 2600. The people that do this don't expect anything in return (except perhaps other information). They do it for the sake of passing on the knowledge. Many hackers implicitly believe in the right of the individual to have access to all information about technology.

"As far as the privacy of big business and corporations go, its a hard thing to argue because these corporations are hording information about technology, is it their technology to hide? If you create something with the whole purpose in mind to make money off of it or making it property, or some business making it their sole property, then that's horribly selfish, especially if it's something that in my opinion people can learn about and actually benefit from - knowing how things work." - Phiber Optik

To most hackers copyright is an outdated concept in the information age. They equate it to the medevil guilds that owned the rights to certain knowledge.

Bruce Sterling was at HoHoCon '93. He had decided to give away his book `The Hacker Crackdown' for free on the internet and had brought some copies on disk. "I know you guys know what to do with your floppies, perform the miracle of the loaves and the fishes..." That brought a laugh from the audience.

Hackers go about exchanging information in a variety of ways. There is the exchange of information on an electronic level. There is the exchange of information on a personal level. There are hacker groups and 2600 (The Hacker Quarterly) meetings. There are cool hacker hangouts like the L0pht in Boston or FoeBud in Germany. These are places where people go to have fun and exchange the latest technology. And then there are the various annual hacker conventions held throughout the world.

Continue to Part 6
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