248 DEAR HACKER

248 DEAR HACKER

be hacked and understood. I encourage those of you who are curious, careful, and adept to start snooping (and believe me, there are a lot of back doors). What you find will shock and amaze you.

LoAN R AnGER Colorado

Dear 2600: Why does 2600 have a problem with the MPAA? They didn’t make the

DMCA. How come more pressure isn’t being put on politicians?

Keyser Soze

There’s this little lawsuit the MPAA filed against us that has probably swayed us away from their position. And they might just as well have written the DMCA themselves since they are among the DC special interest groups who are directly served by it. How much pressure is put on the politicians is completely up to individuals.

Dear 2600: The new movie Swordfish is about a CIA operative who gets a hacker

to transfer money out of a slush fund. Why is it that Hollywood always associates all hackers as “black hats?” Not all of us have a destructive intent. I personally see it as an insult to think that all hackers of the world should be put down like that.

psycho-mantis

They do it for the same reason they make so many lousy movies with the same basic plot devices and overused formulas. It’s easy and it sells. They couldn’t care less about accuracy. There are and will be exceptions and they need to be her- alded whenever possible. In the meantime, don’t buy into the mythology that is

T H E M A G I C O F T H E C O R P O R AT E W O R L D

built up by the entertainment industry, the mass media, and those who benefit by hyping hackers as evil and scary. You can start by refraining from using terminol- ogy such as “black hat” or “cracker.” They perpetuate a stereotype that only ben- efits those with an agenda of greed or power.

Dear 2600:

I was looking over the board members of the MPAA when a thought hit me. Why isn’t there a board member for the consumer? Isn’t the end idea in business to make the consumer happy with the product and want to purchase more? It also seemed that the MPAA had a real legit reason to be established to begin with but seems to have become

a stagnant relic that stands for a corporate feudalistic agenda. quatre

You answered your own question.

Dear 2600: I’ve recently read that Despair, Inc. has registered the frowny emoticon

“:-(”, copyrighted it, and is planning to sue “anyone and everyone who uses the so-called ‘ frowny’ emoticon, or our trademarked logo, in their written email correspondence. Ever.”

Oops. Looks like I might get a little corporate letterhead soon. This is the lowest of the low for corporate America.

Shadow Freq Please tell us you were aware that this is a joke. Despair, Inc. ( www.despair.com )

defines its origins as “a company that would create dissatisfied customers in the process of exploiting demoralized employees while selling overpriced and ineffec- tive products to remediate the problems caused by the very process itself.” That’s kinda the tipoff.