Date: Fri, 31 Mar 2000 17:52:22 -0500
From: "Steve Tindle" ([email protected])
Subject: DVD Issue
I just wanted to say to stop referring computer criminals as hackers ("Legal DVD for Penguin-Heads," March 31, 2000). They are crackers. I am tired of the media telling people, indirectly or directly, that all hackers are computer criminals. This is not true. The definition of a hacker is someone who likes to make computers do things that they were not originally designed to do. The Internet was built on the backs of hackers.
If you could, please refer to the people that cracked the DVD code as crackers, not hackers. The couple million other hackers will love you. It would even be nicer if you made an article on how the media confuses the public by calling crackers hackers, when in fact not all hackers commit computer crimes. Most IT professionals are hackers. I am one, but I don't commit computer crimes like crackers do. Most hackers don't want anything to do with crackers.
