Hacker ethic

The hacker ethic is a branch of philosophy, originating from hacker culture and pertaining to the idea that intellectual goods, like information and data, cannot be owned by an individual, hence sharing them with others is an ethical imperative.^[1] It shares several traits with concepts such as freedom of information, and political philosophies such as anti-authoritarianism, socialism, liberalism, anarchism, and libertarianism.^[2]^[3]^[4]

While some tenets of hacker ethic were described in other texts like Computer Lib/Dream Machines (1974) by Ted Nelson, the term hacker ethic is generally attributed to journalist Steven Levy, who appears to have been the first to document both the philosophy and the founders of the philosophy in his 1984 book titled Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution.

^ "hacker ethic". www.catb.org. Retrieved 28 February 2017.
^ Coleman, E. Gabriella; Golub, Alex (1 September 2008). "Hacker practice: Moral genres and the cultural articulation of liberalism". Anthropological Theory. 8 (3): 255–277. doi:10.1177/1463499608093814. S2CID 145423454.
^ THE “ANONYMOUS” MOVEMENT: HACKTIVISM AS AN EMERGING FORM OF POLITICAL PARTICIPATION. Galina Mikhaylova, M.S. A thesis submitted to the Graduate Council of Texas State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts with a Major in Sociology December 2014.
^ Raymond, Eric S. "Afterword". The Cathedral and the Bazaar. Retrieved 25 July 2020. Yes, the success of open source does call into some question the utility of command-and-control systems, of secrecy, of centralization, and of certain kinds of intellectual property. It would be almost disingenuous not to admit that it suggests (or at least harmonizes well with) a broadly libertarian view of the proper relationship between individuals and institutions.

[1] "hacker ethic". www.catb.org. Retrieved 28 February 2017.

[2] Coleman, E. Gabriella; Golub, Alex (1 September 2008). "Hacker practice: Moral genres and the cultural articulation of liberalism". Anthropological Theory. 8 (3): 255–277. doi:10.1177/1463499608093814. S2CID 145423454.

[3] THE “ANONYMOUS” MOVEMENT: HACKTIVISM AS AN EMERGING FORM OF POLITICAL PARTICIPATION. Galina Mikhaylova, M.S. A thesis submitted to the Graduate Council of Texas State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts with a Major in Sociology December 2014.

[4] Raymond, Eric S. "Afterword". The Cathedral and the Bazaar. Retrieved 25 July 2020. Yes, the success of open source does call into some question the utility of command-and-control systems, of secrecy, of centralization, and of certain kinds of intellectual property. It would be almost disingenuous not to admit that it suggests (or at least harmonizes well with) a broadly libertarian view of the proper relationship between individuals and institutions.

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