18-Jan-2013, 10:39 PM
In the context of the many discussions on ethics that are undertaken here, it will be instructive to hear the views of the many practicing developers in this community on what is an appropriate and productive attitude to adopt towards hacking.
Here is a broad outline of the terms of references, which is not limited to the criminal connotation of trespass that hacking has acquired, but also the often benign and value-neutral notion of tinkering.
- Access of resources via the 'trespass' of hacking for wreaking 'denial of service' seems to us intuitively on a different footing morally than hacking for a release or distribution or redistribution of resources. Such a Robin-Hood formulation may of course be countered by corporates saying that 'denial of profit' maybe a worse attack to the economic engine than 'denial of service'. Like a notion of 'just war' or self-defence as a legitimate reason for firearm-use, are there well-argued criteria to demarcate situations that justify hacking? A direct application of 'just war' and 'self defence' principles is arguing for wire-taps and email surveillance on national security grounds, but isn't there a downside to private vigilantes invoking such arguments? Are there historical instances or even plausible hypothetical instances where hacking of some kind was indispensable to access life-saving or mission-critical information?
- To what degree can corporations (or even startups) reconcile the Code of the Tinkerer with the need to be 'process driven', comply with 'coding standards' and use 'principled approaches'? Apparently, any reconciliation that has been attempted has met with only limited success, given how flamboyant hacker whiz-kids dread domestication by companies that demand lifestyle changes. Tinkering of the sort that invites serendipity and tournaments between tinkerers that encourages competitive innovation have yielded much in terms of technology. A case in point is the development of the RSA algorithm as a result of a mutual 'hacking game' of sorts played by the developers whose initials give the algorithm its name. What can complement initiatives like 'boot-legging time' or '20% innovation time' to give tinkerers and hackers the breathing room they need?
Here is a broad outline of the terms of references, which is not limited to the criminal connotation of trespass that hacking has acquired, but also the often benign and value-neutral notion of tinkering.
- Access of resources via the 'trespass' of hacking for wreaking 'denial of service' seems to us intuitively on a different footing morally than hacking for a release or distribution or redistribution of resources. Such a Robin-Hood formulation may of course be countered by corporates saying that 'denial of profit' maybe a worse attack to the economic engine than 'denial of service'. Like a notion of 'just war' or self-defence as a legitimate reason for firearm-use, are there well-argued criteria to demarcate situations that justify hacking? A direct application of 'just war' and 'self defence' principles is arguing for wire-taps and email surveillance on national security grounds, but isn't there a downside to private vigilantes invoking such arguments? Are there historical instances or even plausible hypothetical instances where hacking of some kind was indispensable to access life-saving or mission-critical information?
- To what degree can corporations (or even startups) reconcile the Code of the Tinkerer with the need to be 'process driven', comply with 'coding standards' and use 'principled approaches'? Apparently, any reconciliation that has been attempted has met with only limited success, given how flamboyant hacker whiz-kids dread domestication by companies that demand lifestyle changes. Tinkering of the sort that invites serendipity and tournaments between tinkerers that encourages competitive innovation have yielded much in terms of technology. A case in point is the development of the RSA algorithm as a result of a mutual 'hacking game' of sorts played by the developers whose initials give the algorithm its name. What can complement initiatives like 'boot-legging time' or '20% innovation time' to give tinkerers and hackers the breathing room they need?