Here's yet another great example of the gross misuse of the term 'hacker' by the under-informed media: http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/apr2003/tc20030416_7638_tc029...

A quick search on google, for some background: http://www.google.com/search?q=misuse+of+term+hacker

Imagine how angry a Muslim would be at an article titled "Should You Hire a Muslim?"--the author going by the assumption that all Muslims are terrorists. If you're a Muslim living in the US post 9/11, or if you have Muslim friends in a similar situation, you'll understand what I mean.

Just as all Muslims are not terrorists (it's a real, real shame we have to explain this to some over-patriotic jerk in the US), all hackers are not social outlaws who break into systems to steal private data or cripple the system. A good hacker is capable of such stuff, and some hackers do, but the vast majority don't!

Kevin Mitnick *might* be a hacker--I don't know, I don't care. Even if he is a hacker, he's also a guy, white, American, etc. and his name begins with 'K'. Is it fair to say that all white American guys whose names begin with 'K' are criminals?

A hacker is only as likely to be a lawbreaker as, say, a carpenter, doctor, sportsperson, soldier, musician, lawyer (yes!) or even policeman.

I'm proud to be associated with the hacker community of GNU, Linux and the Internet, and I urge my fellow hackers to raise their voices against such tarnishing use of our name.

-Manish