OK, sorry, to clarify my position:

Obviously there is a place for a 'hacker' who is payed to find vulnerabilities in software/hardware so as to tighten security for future software/hardware releases.

Political, truth seeking, hackers I can see what they are trying to achieve but I personally disagree with their methods.

Thrill seeking defacers and internet bullyboys is where I draw the line of my tolerance. They waste a lot of innocent people's time and money, causing a lot of grief for them and in my opinion deserve to be punished at the fullextent of whatever laws may be in force. My father-in-law worked at a school a while back, a pupil there was blackmailing other pupils by taking control of their home machines everytime they were on-line and threatening all sorts of stuff. This is not acceptable behaviour IMO.