The Conscience of a "Cracker"

We would of all read Mentors' "The Conscience of a Hacker" at some stage of our computing career. IMHO it's a brilliant little piece of computer related writing. If you haven't read it you can find a copy HERE...

The senior members of this site may remember a few months back that Negative challenged us to change the contents of "The Conscience of a Hacker" to something more up to date as it was first written in 1986..I think he even gave an example with "The Conscience of a HTML'er". So here's my effort. Hope you enjoy..

Firstly, before I start, I would like to point out that I am not a cracker nor do I partake in software piracy. This is just the result of boredom and too much time on my hands....

THE CONSCIENCE OF A CRACKER

Another one got caught today, it's all over the papers.
"Man Arrested in Computer Crime Scandal", "Cracker
Arrested after Serial Tampering"...

Damn Geeks. They're all alike.

But did you, in your three-piece psychology and 1950's
technobrain, ever take a look behind the eyes of the cracker?
Did you ever wonder what made him crack, what forces shaped him,
what forced him to a life of crime?

I am a cracker, enter my world...

Mine is a world that begins with a low payed job. I'm smarter than
most of the other workers, but without money to stay in school
longer and get decent reports, no company wants to hire me..

Damn underachiever. They're all alike.

I live in lower class suburbia. I'm poorer than most other people.
I've listened to Microsoft complain for the 100th time
how piracy costs us all. "No Bill, I didn't buy it, it was
a piece of cake to crack."

Damn Geek. Probably copied it. They're all alike.

I made a discovery today. I found WaReZ.

Wait a second, this is cool. It does what I want it to.
If it makes a mistake, it's because I screwed it up.

Not because it doesn't like me...
Or feels threatened by me...
Or thinks I'm a smart ass...
Or doesn't think I'm not entitled to certain software

Damn Geek. All he does is play games. They're all alike.

And then it happened. A door opened to a world rushing
through my phone line like heroin through an addict's veins,
an electronic pulse is sent out, a refuge from the day-to-day
incompetencies is sought... a board is found. The world of
WaReZ, CrAcKz and Serials. The world of Utopia..

"This is it... this is where I belong."
I know everyone here... although ours is a world of secrecy, spoofed IP's
and fake names... I know you all.

Damn Geek. Tying up the phone line again. They're all alike.

You bet your ass we're all alike... we've been dominated and oppressed
by the rich for too long... the bits of
poorly written freeware that you did let slip through were
pre-chewed and tasteless.
We've been dominated by multinationals, or ignored by the apathetic.
The few that could teach to crack found us willing pupils,
but those few are like drops of water in the desert.

This is our world now... the world of the keygen,
the beauty of the crack. We make use of a service already existing
without paying for what could be dirt-cheap if it wasn't run by
profiteering gluttons, and you call us criminals.
We explore... and you call us criminals. We seek after knowledge...
and you call us criminals.
We exist without skin color, without social status, without
religious bias... and you call us criminals. You build the
same pathetic Operating systems year after year and expect us to pay
inflated prices for the same program with a different GUI,
you cheat, and lie to us and
try to make us believe it's for our own good, yet we're the criminals.

Yes, I am a criminal. My crime is that of a low income. My crime is
that of judging companies by the quality of software they produce.
My crime is that of outsmarting you, some thing
that you will never forgive me for.

I am a cracker, and this is my manifesto. You may stop this individual,
but you can't stop us all...

After all, we're all alike.

challenged

Ok, I feel challenged. I'll give it a shot but it'll take a few days because my ideas are different than yours. I hope other's will also post their own "manifesto" with ideas that are different ... again... from either mine or yours or Negative's or the original...

Thanks for sharing your thoughts.

This annoying banter is based on what? Is there a common consensus that software crackers come from lower class suburbia? This is absolutely ridiculous and is a rather obvious attempt at receiving recognition from the other idiots like negative did in his ORIGINAL satire. You get no "good job" or "pat on the back" from me.

Quote:

Originally posted by oblio
This annoying banter is based on what? Is there a common consensus that software crackers come from lower class suburbia? This is absolutely ridiculous and is a rather obvious attempt at receiving recognition from the other idiots like negative did in his ORIGINAL satire. You get no "good job" or "pat on the back" from me.

:rofl:

You go girl! LOL

No pat on the back needed. It was a challange posted by someone who's opinions' I respect. I answered that challenge. Plain and simple, oblio.

Quote:

Originally posted by oblio
You get no "good job" or "pat on the back" from me.

I dont think you have to worry about somebody thinking they will Oblio. If you disagree with everyone and every thought posted here, one has to wonder why you read these boards.

Quote:

Originally posted by oblio
Is there a common consensus that software crackers come from lower class suburbia?

Actually, rather than try and classify all crackers as lower middle class, I was trying to convey the age old piracy debate of "why should the latest technology only be available to those who can afford it?"

I was hoping I didn't have to spell it out but I forget that people such as yourself lurk on these forums and require things to be spelt out for them....