Ladies and gentlemen of the CProgramming.com boards,
Please allow me to present to you this question that has agonized me for weeks now: When is hacking ethical? Certain GNURadicals will tell you that hacking is just coding. However, I am using the commonly understood definition: intrusion into a computer system.
From what I've gathered, it's usually immoral to hack because it goes against God's word: "Thou shalt not steal" (Exodus 20:16). I would say it's a form of stealing computer data and personal records, which only authorized government agents ought to have the right to access without prior explicit permission.
Clearly, not every nation follows an Occidental understanding of property rights, specifically the communist bloc nations. Moreover, these same communist regimes often hinder the fundamental human rights such as freedom of speech and press. Therefore, I consider it to be ethical to hack Chinese websites, especially if their websites for the People's Republic of China. However, for such an act to be ethical, it must enlighten the oppressed subjects of the communist state of the universal freedoms they've been missing.
There is a certain undesirable element that hacks systems under--shall we say--radical pretenses. I am specifically referring to anti-authority and anti-globalization anarchists' groups and so-called cyberpunks. These misguided youths are filled with passionate idealism and not an ounce of common sense. Their behavior viz-à-viz hacking is anti-social and unethical. U.S. computer crime law is sufficient for these cases.
I now invite everyone to discuss this subject. I am sure I have made some controversial assertions, but I believe healthy disagreement sustains true democracy.
