Hackers and pirates: a disambiguation

Pushed by the medias, more and more people use the term “hacker” to talk about pirates and generally bad-willing computer freaks. As I consider myself a hacker, I am willing to give here a small disambiguation of this term.

What is a hacker?

The Chambers Pocket Dictionary defines a hacker as someone who uses computers to gain unauthorized access to data, other computers, etc.. This use of the term is actually deprecated (see this link).

I’ll rather use the definition of the Wikipedia encyclopedia instead, as I believe it is much closer to reality.
Wikipedia lists 3 meanings of the word “hacker”:

In computer programming, a hacker is a programmer who hacks or reaches a goal by employing a series of modifications to exploit or extend existing code or resources. For some, hacker has a negative connotation and refers to a person who “hacks” or uses kludges to accomplish programming tasks that are ugly, inelegant, and inefficient. This negative form of the noun “hack” is even used among users of the positive sense of “hacker”.

In computer security, a hacker is a person who specializes in work with the security mechanisms for computer and network systems. While including those who endeavor to strengthen such mechanisms, it more often is used (especially in the mass media) to refer to those who seek access despite them.

In other technical fields, hacker is extended to mean a person who makes things work beyond perceived limits through their own technical skill, such as a hardware hacker, or reality hacker.

Hacker and pirates: open-source vs. proprietary software

Ok so I gave a definition of what a hacker is, but then why do so many people call pirates hackers?

As you probably understand, a hacker is someone who enjoys modifying computer programs. How is this illegal? It is illegal when the code is not yours. If the license of a program doesn’t allow you to modify it, then it is illegal to do so.

Try to picture a man who is good with cars. If this man repairs and improves his own car, who will complain? On the contrary, if this man modifies the car of his neighbour without asking him the permission to do so, then it is surely not a good idea.

It is the same with computer programs: modifying proprietary software is illegal because their rights are owned by physical or moral persons who do not allow anybody to alter them, whereas modifying open-source software is totally legal and even encouraged.

To sum it up

Most pirates are hackers because they modify computer programs, but they are illegal because they modify programs whose license doesn’t allow them to.

Hackers in general - and GNU/Linux hackers in general - are not illegal, because they hack computers programs they have the right to modify.