Linux Journal: Free Kevin, Kevin Freed

“DeCSS is one important rallying point which brought the Linux
community and the 2600 community closer together. Although the
former has looked down upon the latter (often using derogatory
terms such as “cracker”) and although members of the 2600 community
have often been critical of weak security on earlier Linux systems
(often paying due respect to NetBSD and FreeBSD), both communities
rallied together to make sure the DeCSS source code was available
all over the net. The “Whack the Mole” technique (as one
Slashdotter named it) in this case was a joint effort, a mutual
decision by everyone involved to defy the law, in effect declaring,
one step at a time, the illegitimacy of government in affairs of
computers, cryptography and the Net. Both Slashdot (itself a
perfect example of the potential unity of diverse computing
communities) and 2600 have been accosted by the MPAA (Motion
Picture Association of America) for their role in distributing
DeCSS, and a fight-to-the-death legal battle may ensue (2600, a
pillar of its own ethics and integrity, steadfastly refuses to be
coerced or intimidated as a matter of principle, and as a result
may go down in flames, though I bet it will triumph). As a typical
sign of changing times for these traditionally divergent
communities, VA Linux’s Chris DiBona is referenced right on the
2600 homepage, along with the EFF (which professes not to be a
defense fund for crackers). So much for stories of “crackers” being
closed and secretive types who associate with no one but
themselves.”

“What does this mean for the Linux community?“

“In so far as there are divisions within the Linux scene, there
have traditionally been three figureheads who stand for slightly
different world-views: Linus Torvalds, self-proclaimed top
programmer in the world, author of the kernel and all around
popular and charming fellow, embraces everyone from the commercial
sector to the free software community, and is a favorite of
techies, kernel hackers and the press; Eric Raymond, president of
the Open Source Initiative, identified the open source methodology
and brought it to the masses when he encouraged Netscape to open
up, formulated The Cathedral and the Bazaar which laid the
groundwork identifying the bazaar (open source) approach to
software development and also developed an economic model which,
though not entirely accurate, provides the kind of “selfish agent”
model business people are looking for, as well as business models
for leveraging open source, and is a favorite of those people known
as “suits” and those committed to “living in a world where software
doesn’t suck” (regardless of whether or not it is free); and
Richard Stallman, whose 15 years of work produced the FSF, GNU
Project, free software movement, and most of the important software
that runs on Linux, has always been a purist for free software and
stresses community, freedom and philosophy. Hence Stallman is
popular with anti-commercial sectors, the “free software community”
(slightly different from the open source community or the Linux
community), long-time free software advocates, a lot of leftist
types who are repulsed by laissez-faire, free market rhetoric and
consider free software more a socialist/anarchist creation than a
product of the free market, and those who value the philosophy of
free software over the methodology of open source or the specific
technical virtues of any given kernel or software package. To
oversimply grossly (and make a rather arbitrary construction), we
could say that Linus is the figurehead of the Linux community, Eric
is the figurehead of the open source community, and Richard is the
figurehead of the free software community. When we speak of the
Linux community, though, we generally mean a vague, inclusive
assortment of the three, and in my mind anyone who uses Linux or
otherwise identifies with Linux is definitely part of our
community, though others may disagree.”

“Unfortunately, these camps seem to have written off the
Mitnicks of this world as “crackers”. Indeed, the Linux, open
source and free software communities have almost uniformly been on
a quest to abolish the ‘misuse’ of the word “hacker” to refer to
those who discover security holes and explore the matrix. Eric S.
Raymond (known as ESR), is very explicit about this point in The
New Hacker’s Dictionary, explaining the origins of the term
“hacker” and how the word has been villainized by the media. He
even jokes in his How to Become a Hacker about the hefty prison
sentences levied against seemingly innocuous network explorers.
Likewise, the free software community is on too pure an idealist
crusade to be involved in exploring computers whose owners do not
want uninvited guests. Linux users in general are too busy building
the most fantastic operating system in history to be interested in
cracking techniques, and very many are system administrators who
have been plagued for years by silent intruders, so there are often
years of animosity coming from many Unix users. Nevertheless, our
new era may bring forgiveness, buried hatchets, cooperation and,
most of all, mutual understanding.”

Complete
Story