Limitless
possibilities of the Cyberspace are what bothers the federal government. In an
imaginary land with a new identity, it's easy to forget that there are laws that
still govern us. The law most frequently broken is the copyright law. (Compute Issue 159).
Software companies loose up to eight billion dollars a year
on illegal distribution of their software (Compute Issue 159). Software games can
be easily broken (removal of copy right protection), compressed, and copied to
the file distribution area of a BBS where anyone can download a copy. This is a
federal law that's being broken and it carries a strict penalty. You could owe
thousands of dollars to the software companies and you could spend up to five
years in Federal prison if you are caught (Compute Issue 159). What's strange
about this is the fact that there is such a steep penalty for breaking the
copyright law, but as of yet, there is no such penalty for other more serious
crime such as hacking. A lot of information about hacking is distributed through
bulletin board systems. Some bulletin board systems are even run for the
specific reason of teaching and distributing information about hacking. We
should in no way look lightly on the people who break the copyright law. These
people are thieves who cost software companies billions of dollars and in return
the cost is passed down to the honest consumers. But other than the pocket book,
these people are not causing any "direct" harm on anyone. Hackers on the other
hand, break into other people's computer systems with malicious intent.
(Battle for the Soul of the Internet).
These computer systems could be anything from military computer systems to your
local high school mainframe. Successful hackers can get access to classified
information from the government, find out personal information about anyone,
change bank account information, or change their grades in school (Compute Issue
156). They have no respect for society or it's rules. Hackers have many reasons for
what they do, but the two major reasons are:
1) They want to know if they can do it. 2) It's an act of revenge to the
company they're working for or a specific individual (Compute Issue 156). The damage
they can cause to the Federal Government or any private individual is staggering.
Terror on the Internet
is an article about hacking that recently appeared in Times magazine.
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