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Introduction Introduction Toward a Radical Criminology of Hackers In the expansive Rio Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, I stood in line for around an hour and a half to pay for my badge for admittance into DEF CON 21, one of the largest hacker conventions in the world. The wad of cash in my hand felt heavier than it should have as I approached the badge vendor. DEF CON is an extravagant affair and attendees pay for it (though, from my own readings, the conference administrators work to keep the costs reduced). The line slowly trickled down the ramp into the hotel con- vention area where the badge booths were arranged. As I laid eyes on the convention, my jaw dropped. It was packed. Attendees were already mov- ing hurriedly throughout the place, engaged in energetic conversations. Black t- shirts— a kind of hacker uniform— were everywhere. Las Vegas- and gambling- themed décor lined the walls and floors. Already, I could see a line forming at the DEF CON merchandise booth. Miles, a hacker I had gotten to know throughout my research, mentioned that if I wanted some of the “swag” or “loot” (the conference merchandise), I should go ahead and get in line, a potential three- to four-hour wait. Seemingly, everyone wanted to purchase merchandise to provide some evidence they were in attendance. Wait too long and the loot runs out. After winding through the serpentine line of conference attendees wait- ing for admittance, I approached the badge vendors and (dearly) departed with almost $200. Stepping into the convention area, I felt that loss in the pit of my stomach. The con was huge and already bustling even though the badge line still wrapped around the interior of the enormous Rio hotel. I shuffled to the merchandise booth and scanned the prices. Merchandise was not extraordinarily pricey, but certainly not bargain- bin cheap either. I peered into my wallet to inspect my cash reserves—not wanting to spend too much. As a graduate student, finances were tight and I had to pay for this entire trip out of pocket. But I wanted a shirt; evidence of attendance. 1 Steinmetz_2p.indd 1 9/7/16 5:28 PM 2 | Introduction My inner miser balked but I would later stand in line for two hours for this coveted piece of merchandise—a proud indicator of my attendance— while chatting up a fellow conventioneer about the state of camera tech- nology and NSA surveillance (a popular item of discussion as the Edward Snowden leaks were still fresh). This process of indecision repeated itself later, when I finally broke down and purchased a set of lock picks. Coming from what some would consider a working- class background, I am generally paranoid about money. As such, I am also sensitive to the spending habits of others. I began noticing that DEF CON attendees often carried around expensive equipment, and readily purchased gear or con merchandise from various vendors without a second thought. Coupled with the expense of Las Vegas itself, the price of the hotels, and travel expenses, DEF CON was certainly hard on bank accounts. While standing in the mid- dle of the convention center, a custom DEF CON 21 floor decal beneath my already aching feet, I thought, “It would be difficult to participate in the hacker community if you were poor.” While DEF CON provided just one ex- ample where I was confronted with the pressures of class circulating through hacking and technology, political economic factors surfaced and resurfaced time and time again throughout my research— a heartbeat under the floor- boards of hacker culture. From the expense of such social affairs, the costs of equipment, the exposures to technology at an early age, the peer groups, the employment tendencies, and other factors that unfolded over the course of my research, it became apparent that socio-economic class—and the assortment of political economic factors that coincide— were vital to consider when examining hackers, their genesis, and their place in the world. This excerpt is a narrative taken from my field notes and recollections about my time conducting ethnographic field research at DEF CON 21. I provided this vignette to both give the reader a sense of what it was like to attend the con and to introduce a key subject of this book: the political economy of hacking. Of course, the purpose is not— by any stretch of the imagination—to paint hackers as a spoiled group detached from mate- rial reality. Not all hackers are financially privileged and among those who are, some are fully aware of the advantage such privilege affords them. The importance of this narrative is to provide a glimpse into how class (and political economy more broadly) increasingly became a key variable of consideration in this analysis. Steinmetz_2p.indd 2 9/7/16 5:28 PM Introduction | 3 Many readers may find the link between economic factors and hack- ing to be unsurprising. The typical image of the hacker is an electronic thief curled over a computer double- fisting cans of Mountain Dew, stealing credit card numbers, and, if many portrayals are to be believed, wearing a ski mask in the privacy of their own home. Since theft is at the core of this image for many, it makes sense that money would be a central theme. As will be discussed in the pages to follow, however, this image of hacking is problematic at best, and outright ideological at worst. Hacking is more accurately defined as a broad technological subculture involving a range of cultural products and activities beyond technological crime. While, yes, it has been responsible for some illicit activities, hacking has also been instrumental in the development of many technologies often taken for granted— including the Internet it- self. When this book presents the argument about the role of political economy in hacking, the reader should note that these effects are more pervasive than illicit economies alone. Intellectual property, media, labor, consumption, technology, and other factors related to capital and accumulation all play vital roles in the formation of the hacking com- munity and its broader social context. Take, for instance, a 1985 panel discussion at the Hackers Conference, a gathering of technological innovators and enthusiasts (Sterling 1992). This conversation featured major names in hacking at the time, includ- ing the likes of Bruce Webster, Richard Stallman, Bruce Baumgart, Rich- ard Greenblatt, and Steve Wozniak, among others (Brand and Herron 1985). These hackers discussed what Steven Levy (1984) had identified as a “hacker ethic” in his Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution. The conference also provided a forum to discuss software creation, in- tellectual property, business, and related issues. Hackers have histori- cally played a major role in the computer and software industry, both as developers and entrepreneurs. Consider the following quotes taken from the panel (Brand and Herron 1985), which demonstrate, even in the 1980s, how pervasive political economic concerns were to hackers: Some pirates copy software and they’ll copy everything and put it in their collection, but if they find something that they do like and decide it’s a good one, they’ll go out and buy it because the producer deserves the money. (Steve Wozniak) Steinmetz_2p.indd 3 9/7/16 5:28 PM 4 | Introduction If you want to bring up the word “ethics”— I felt very uncomfortable last night with a couple of people who got up and talked about how they made their living stealing from the telephone company. I think it’s one thing to be a high school kid wanting to show off that you’re capable of making a phone call without paying for it, and it’s something else to be an adult being in the career or encouraging people to be thieves. (Brian Harvey) A perspective that hasn’t been mentioned is that in times like the [Home- brew Computer Club], people had jobs. As Thomas Jefferson said, “I make war so that my grandchildren can study philosophy.” The person who is studying philosophy is at the top of the food chain. The problem when the philosophers find they can sell philosophy is that suddenly it’s the bottom of a food chain again. Only as long as it wasn’t something that was commercially available could it have this pure aspect. (Ted Nelson) It seems like there’s a couple of interesting paradoxes that we’re working here. That’s why I’m especially interested in what Bob Wallace has done with PC- WRITE and what Andrew Fleugelman did before that with PC- TALK. On the one hand, information wants to be expensive, because it’s so valuable. The right information in the right place just changes your life. On the other hand, information wants to be free, because the cost of get- ting it out is getting lower and lower all the time. So you have these two fighting against each other. (Steward Brand) I think there is another kind of software piracy going on that’s not dis- cussed very much, and the villains are not high school kids who copy discs and break secret codes. They’re executives in three-piece suits that work for large corporations and drive Mercedes. They make money off the results of research and education, and they don’t kick very much back to support the next generation. (Henry Lieberman) It’s worse than that even, because at a university paid for by everyone in the country, an idea will be developed almost to the point where you can use it, but then the last bit of work will be done by some company and the company will get lots of money, and those of us who already paid for most of the work won’t be able to use the results without paying again, Steinmetz_2p.indd 4 9/7/16 5:28 PM Introduction | 5 and we won’t be able to get the sources even though we paid for those sources to be written.
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