Problems with the Nostalgic Discourse

The old-school hackers may be closer to the new generation than it first appears. In "Old Hackers, New Hackers: What’s the Difference?" Mizrach argues that it is only a small group of new hackers, the crackers (though he does not call them such), who are causing the fight between old and new hackers over the definition and who gets the status. While the nostalgics argue that their activities are purely legal, Stallman contradicts this by explaining his experience at MIT where he started working in 1971:
"I don't know if there actually is a hacker's ethic as such, but there sure was an M.I.T. Artificial Intelligence Lab ethic. This was that bureaucracy should not be allowed to get in the way of doing anything useful. Rules did not matter - results mattered. Rules, in the form of computer security or locks on doors, were held in total, absolute disrespect... Anyone who dared to lock a terminal in his office, say because he was a professor and thought he was more important than other people, would likely find his door left open the next morning. I would just climb over the ceiling or under the floor, move the terminal out, or leave the door open with a note saying what a big inconvenience it is to have to go under the floor, "so please do not inconvenience people by locking the door any longer." Even now, there is a big wrench at the AI Lab entitled "the seventh-floor master key", to be used in case anyone dares to lock up one of the more fancy terminals."