Hacking isn't illegal at all. I would argue that the real meaning of hacking is discovering how things work. You can hack your own computer just as much as you could hack into someone else's (although, the meaning of hack and hacker is starting to blur here), but it would be rather strange if someone attempted to prosecute you for it.

I mean, if you get locked out of your house and the only way you can get in is to break the window, would you think that you would be arrested for doing so? It seems unlikely.

Now, if you get "locked" out of someone else's house and you decide that you need to smash the window to get in, I doubt that you could possibly not be breaking the law. But if the person who own's the house requires your help to break into their own house because they have lost the key, you aren't going to get arrested.

Anyhow. I think I've just reiterated what everyone else already said which was kinda pointless. I just get annoyed when people talk about "hackers" and "hacking" as though that was necessarily a bad thing.

ac