354 DEAR HACKER

354 DEAR HACKER

you are searching for—or should I say destroying. What else, that you’re

a male, single, loner, and don’t have a life. That when you were a child, you were neglected somehow from society, and possibly abused.

Yes, you may be “elite” in this “culture” that you weasel around in. But in regular society you are a bunch of morons and losers. Why else would any one of you set out to destroy other people’s property?

Why the imbalance, you say? Well, I believe I answered that. And I guess you are correct. It always does come back to ignorance. It is a complete shame a large group of individuals who are as intelligent as yourselves go out to ruin so many things. So, yes, it does always come back to ignorance.

I have read many of your magazines. I had become “more educated” in your so called hacker culture. I’ve come to a conclusion you all are very sick minded individuals who need strong medication, lots of therapy, and prison sentences.

I have not read anything in your magazine saying “Hey, I fixed this and got a job.” It’s more like, “When you do this... hehe.”

So, Paranoia vs. Sanity. Well yes. Us un-elite persons know better. Lots better. That is why you don’t see us going to prison. That is why you don’t see us setting out to destroy anything.

If I were any one of you, I would look around your place and look at what you are doing with this so called “knowledge of computers.” And answer me this: is it legal? And if you cannot honestly say yes, it has proved my point. It proves my point every time I read or hear anything of hackers doing wrong. Your culture is very deranged and in need of therapy while filling out your sentence in prison.

Don’t forget, you’ll slip. And when you fall, you are on your way to prison. The laws are getting stricter regarding what your so called culture is doing. That is when the Nation sits back and laughs at all you “elite” netizens.

So which is more elite? A law abiding citizen or the “elite” jerk hacker committing crime. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out the answer.

Steven Jackson Joliet, Illinois

OUR BIGGEST FANS

You really need to turn off the TV and take a little trip into reality. Anyone can send a virus or be destructive. It’s even easier than spouting mistruths. Hackers are blamed because the simpletons in mass media refer to anyone doing anything they don’t understand with a computer as a hacker. Most people see through this. Some don’t.

If you were to take away this one major factual fiction, you would see all of your other points collapsing onto themselves. And then maybe you would be able to understand that aliases and anonymity are not in themselves a bad thing. Why are they even needed? Read your own letter to answer that one. You’re not the only person intent on sending anyone they feel to be a threat straight to prison. With this kind of attitude out there, it’s no wonder we see students being suspended for reading our magazine, employees being threatened with dismissal for having a copy at their desk, bookstore clerks making snide remarks to people who dare to support us, and all the other little things that serve to make people afraid.

Dear 2600: Your recent cover for 21:3 highly offends me. While I can’t tell if the

soldier is from the People’s Liberation Army from Mao’s era or a sol- dier of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, seeing how their poster drawing style is very similar, nonetheless it is certainly meant to defame the accomplishments of Chinese and/or Korean socialism. I’ve always enjoyed reading 2600 Magazine and agreed with your fight against the DMCA. However, it seems like you have overstepped your boundaries of knowledge politically. This cover is an insult to progres- sive forces around the world. All that you know about the accomplish- ments of Chinese and Korean socialism is what you might see on NBC or CNN. You Liberals can hardly understand what “Totalitarianism” and “Dictatorship” really means, but that’s besides the point. It is simply unfair to insult the history of an entire country which has struggled against U.S. and Japanese imperialism, provided free health care, housing, food, and education under capitalist encirclement and threat of capitalist restoration. As a Venezuelan citizen, a revolutionary par- ticipating in the Bolivarian Revolution, we recognize that solidarity is key to implementing our socialist reforms, reaching out to fraternal