A. What Is Hacking?

Hacking is the act of penetrating computer systems to gain

knowledge about the system and how it works.
Hacking is illegal because we demand free access to ALL data, and
we get it. This pisses people off and we are outcasted from society, and
in order to stay out of prison, we must keep our status of being a
hacker/phreaker a secret. We can't discuss our findings with anyone but
other members of the hacking/phreaking community for fear of being
punished. We are punished for wanting to learn. Why is the government
spending huge amounts of time and money to arrest hackers when there are
other much more dangerous people out there. It is the murderers,
rapists, terrorists, kidnappers, and burglers who should be punished for what th
ey have done, not hackers. We do NOT pose a threat to anyone. We are NOT out to
hurt people or there computers. I admit that there are some people out there wh
o call themselves hackers and who deliberately damage computers. But these peopl
e are criminals, NOT hackers. I don't care what the government says, we are NOT
criminals. We are NOT trying to alter or damage any system. This is widely misun
derstood. Maybe one day people will believe us when we say that all