“There have always been hackers, people who didn’t simply
use the tools given to them, but abused them. They tore them apart
and made them do things that they were never intended to do. There
will always be hackers, unless companies like Digital Convergence
have their way.“
“Digital Convergence, just in case you’ve been in a cave for the
past several weeks, is the company that makes the CueCat. The
CueCat is a cool barcode scanner that is being given away for free
at Radio Shack, and being sent in the mail to subscribers of Forbes
and Wired.”
“What happens when someone gives me a cool piece of hardware?
Yep, it goes the way of the record player, metrnome and other neat
stuff I’ve ripped apart. Young hackers, all over the country, did
the same thing. People figured out how it talked to their computer,
other people figured out what bits of hardware did what, and still
others wrote software drivers for Linux, which DC hadn’t
supplied.”
“Digital Convergence’s response was immediate. Cease-and-Desist
letters went out and lawyers threatend these hackers, all in the
name of Intellectual Property. This is a very immediate, and direct
threat to future generations of hackers like me.”