Product: 0307711544

Cory Doctorow clearly intended for this book to be more than just entertainment, and even more than just a polemic against the security state we have been living with since Osama bin Laden gave Washington the excuse they had been waiting for.
It’s not written as a manual for how to hack computers – that would 1) expose Doctorow to criminal liability and 2) be obsolete in no time (for all I know, even the XBox Universal and ParanoidLinux software he made up are obsolete by now) – but it gives you examples of what a hacker does and why an honorable person might become one (I love the bit early on where our hero commits a series of crimes, small and serious, but cringes away from doing something that would inconvenience his school librarian, comparing it with a really vile act like tearing pages out of a book).
It does not surprise me to find that Doctorow has made this book available in many formats and venues, sometimes for free. It really is a story that can benefit our culture, especially the more people have read it.
I read it in a library copy, myself, but when I am past my current impecunious situation, i intend to buy a hardbound copy and donate it to a library that doesn’t have it).
Rating: 5
0307711544
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