I think that yuo are right in that people believe hacking is all bad, and that it isn't. However, it is definitely not all good. Hackers have the capability to do many bad things, and this temptation is not something all of them resist. Don't get me wrong, I salute you for being a good hacker. There are hackers out there who hack into sites just to make sure the security is good, and report it if it isn't. That is good, and there is no reason why that shouldn't continue. However, the mere reason that it does happen shows that there is a something to protect against: hackers - the bad kinds.

Oh yeah - i'm just categorizing just to quickly support myself.

jon:

It's the All-American way to look at something for its bad things. If you don't like it, you're just gonna have to stop crying and face the facts. Take ricers for instance. Just because someone modifies their car, I'm sure they'll be branded by at least 50% of Americans as a 'no good teenage racer that has no respect for laws'.

Whether you like it or not, 'hack' has become a household term in a bad way. Even if it is for 'fun', if it's unauthorized, it's still illegal. You think it's only bad when damages are caused.

Yes, some hacking has nothing to do with illegal activity, and that is good, but we are talking about the kind of hacking with malicious intent, and you are going to have to understand that.

spy software can be found on a lot of the person-to-person download services, an old one that did music was napster. and hacking is something else all together. hacking is going into someone elses computer and tampering with it. spying is and isnt illegal, stealing info and using it for your own gain (like stealing a credit card number and buying things with it) is illegal. but spying on what someone sends in an e-mail or what they r typing to someone in an instant message of some kind, really cant be considered illegal. but im no like expert on legal stuff or anything, it just makes sense.

*screams at the awful misuse of the term 'hacking'*
*runs around blindly*

I got yelled at in school for calling myself a hacker :) (and kicked out of places like IRC channel and forums (uhoh)) Go read the jargon file for people who don't know the _real_ meaning.

911 Hacking
 

I peronaly hate the way our government used 911 as an excuse to put up many anti-hacking laws. The new laws don't protect you any more than the old laws did, they are just an excuse for the U.S. government to further regulate the internet and take away more of our freedoms. Truely we are the nation of the blind and ignorant. The internet is a global thing. We do not own it, the government does not own it, no one owns it, and because of this, noone has the right to regulate it.

Evulish, Jon: Thank you.

I rarely have the patience to try to explain this sort of thing, but quoting The Jargon File is pretty easy.

The Jargon File:
www.jargon.org ( http://tuxedo.org/~esr/jargon/ ) is basically the Hacker's Dictionary. It's a compendium of terms (jargon), maintained by Eric S. Raymond, whom Jon mentioned in his earlier post.

The Jargon File defines a hacker as "[a] person who enjoys exploring the details of programmable systems and how to stretch their capabilities, as opposed to most users, who prefer to learn only the minimum necessary." This entire definition, which I hold to be true, explains that a "hacker" is someone who enjoys learning, and being able to take full advantage of resources given to him/herself.

Further, the last definition (yes, it is a dictionary with multiple definitions per term, if the situation calls for it) in the entry for the term "hacker" is "8. [deprecated] A malicious meddler who tries to discover sensitive information by poking around. Hence `password hacker', `network hacker'. The correct term for this sense is cracker." The term "deprecated" is used to mean "obsolete" or "unused".

Even further we travel with the definition of a "cracker", "One who breaks security on a system."

There you have it, a little clarification.
Please try not to misuse the term "hacker", for those of us who tend to identify with it, when it is misused, it's fairly offensive. Try to instead adopt the term "cracker" into your vocabulary.

Thank you for your time.