2600: The Hacker Quarterly
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What is 2600: The Hacker Quarterly?
2600: The Hacker Quarterly, founded in 1984, is an American magazine known as the "hacker’s bible". It serves as a technical journal and muckraking magazine, covering technological exploration, exposing government and corporate misdeeds, and engaging in legal, ethical, and technical debates about hacking.
The magazine is closely linked to its founder, Emmanuel Goldstein (a pseudonym for Eric Corley). 2600 began as a newsletter and is named after the 2600-hertz tone that formerly controlled AT&T’s switching system, which phone phreaks mimicked to access long-distance lines freely. The magazine publishes articles on system entry, security vulnerabilities, encryption, and the ethics of viruses, along with letters, legal advice, and hacking stories.
2600 has faced legal challenges, particularly for opposing the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). In 2000, the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) sued 2600 for linking to a program that allowed users to run DVDs on Linux systems, raising free-speech and fair-use questions.
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When was 2600: The Hacker Quarterly first published?
2600: The Hacker Quarterly, an American magazine, was founded in 1984. Sometimes called “the hacker’s bible,” it functions as both a technical journal and a muckraking magazine, exposing government and corporate misdeeds. The magazine is closely identified with its founder, publisher, and editor, Emmanuel Goldstein (a pseudonym for Eric Corley). The magazine’s name references the 2600-hertz tone that formerly controlled AT&T’s switching system. Goldstein also served as a technical consultant for the Hollywood film Hackers (1995).
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Who is the main audience of 2600 magazine?
2600: The Hacker Quarterly is an American magazine that was founded in 1984. It serves as a technical journal and muckraking magazine. The magazine is closely identified with its founder, publisher, and editor, Emmanuel Goldstein. 2600 publishes articles on topics such as system entry and exploration, security vulnerabilities, and the ethics of viruses. A large portion of the magazine is given over to letters to the editors.
The magazine has continually countered mainstream media representations of hackers as computer terrorists and has routinely run editorials in support of jailed hackers. One of the goals of 2600 is to define the "hacker ethic". The magazine’s political stance has been described as antiauthoritarian.
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What types of topics and articles does 2600 cover?
2600: The Hacker Quarterly, an American magazine, functions as a technical journal and muckraking magazine. It covers topics such as system entry and exploration, security vulnerabilities, protection from invasive software, new encryption techniques, removing ad banners from websites, and the ethics of viruses. A large portion of the magazine contains letters to the editors, legal advice, anecdotes about authoritarian responses to hacking, and tales of hacking adventures. Since 1989, photos of pay phones around the world have been a signature feature.
The magazine has routinely run editorials in support of jailed hackers and defines the "hacker ethic". The magazine's political stance has been described as antiauthoritarian and, in some respects, libertarian. The magazine is only one aspect of the 2600 community, which also includes a Web site, a film company, and 2600 Meetings. 2600: The Hacker Quarterly has at times found itself in legal trouble, especially because of its ongoing opposition to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA).
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How does 2600 magazine contribute to discussions about hacking and technology?
2600: The Hacker Quarterly, founded in 1984, serves as a technical journal and muckraking magazine, contributing to legal, ethical, and technical debates about hacking.
The magazine publishes articles on system entry, security vulnerabilities, encryption, and virus ethics. It also features letters to the editors containing responses, legal advice, and anecdotes.
2600 counters mainstream media portrayals of hackers as computer terrorists and supports jailed hackers. A core goal of 2600 is to define the "hacker ethic," advocating for free information, opposing corporate and government control, and valuing knowledge-seeking and innovation. It asserts hackers perform a public service by exposing electronic systems' vulnerabilities.
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Why is 2600: The Hacker Quarterly important in hacker culture and technology history?
2600: The Hacker Quarterly, founded in 1984, is significant in hacker culture and technology history as a technical journal and muckraking magazine. It explores technology, reveals government and corporate misconduct, and engages in legal, ethical, and technical debates about hacking.
The magazine, closely linked to its founder Emmanuel Goldstein, addresses system entry, security flaws, encryption, and virus ethics. A large part of the magazine is devoted to letters to the editors; the section contains responses to previous articles and other letters (sometimes in precise technical detail), legal advice, anecdotes about authoritarian responses to hacking, and tales of hacking adventures. It supports jailed hackers and defines the "hacker ethic," advocating for free information and opposing corporate and government control, while also affirming knowledge-seeking and tech innovation. The magazine has continually countered mainstream media representations of hackers as computer terrorists.
1 Britannica SourceCreated from Britannica articles using AI. AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles.
2600: The Hacker Quarterly, American magazine, founded in 1984 and sometimes called “the hacker’s bible,” that has served as both a technical journal, focusing on technological exploration and know-how, and a muckraking magazine, exposing government and corporate misdeeds. 2600: The Hacker Quarterly has been involved continually in the legal, ethical, and technical debates over hacking.
The magazine is closely identified with its founder, publisher, and editor, Emmanuel Goldstein (a pseudonym for Eric Corley that comes from the shadowy leader of the resistance in George Orwell’s 1984). He cofounded 2600 partly in response to his 1983 arrest for having allegedly hacked into a system that gave him access to a number of corporations’ e-mail records. The charges were later dropped, but the experience led him to channel his energies into creating a printed forum for the digital underground community. 2600 began as a three-sheet newsletter with a circulation of 25. Its name is a reference to the 2600-hertz tone that formerly controlled AT&T’s switching system. Mimicking the frequency—allowing free access to long-distance lines—was one of the first modifications learned by “phone phreaks,” the forerunners of computer hackers.
Goldstein took on the role of spokesperson for young hackers. He served as technical consultant on the Hollywood film Hackers (1995), testified before Congress, and, beginning in 1988, hosted Off the Hook, a talk-radio show based in New York City that was described as “the hacker’s view of the emerging technology, and the threats posed by an increasingly Orwellian society.”
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2600 publishes articles on topics such as system entry and exploration, security vulnerabilities, protection from invasive software, the implications of new encryption techniques, the way to remove ad banners from Web sites, and the ethics of viruses. A large portion of the magazine is given over to letters to the editors; the section contains responses to previous articles and other letters (sometimes in precise technical detail), legal advice, anecdotes about authoritarian responses to hacking, and tales of hacking adventures. Since 1989, a signature of 2600 has been its featuring of photos of pay phones around the world.
The magazine has continually countered mainstream media representations of hackers as computer terrorists. It has routinely run editorials in support of jailed hackers such as “Phiber Optik” (Mark Abene, technical consultant to the magazine), Bernie S. (Edward Cummings), and especially Kevin Mitnick, who served more than five years in jail for hacking into the computer systems of major corporations and on whose behalf 2600 mounted a spirited defense.
One of the goals of 2600 is to define the “hacker ethic.” According to Goldstein, that ethic begins with the notion that “all information should be free.” It involves a hard-line stance against corporate and government control of information technologies, and it affirms the value of knowledge-seeking and technological innovation on the part of hackers. It also maintains that hackers should not damage or profit from the systems that they crack, on the principle that hackers perform a public service by exposing the vulnerabilities of electronic systems; thus, according to the ethic, those activities constitute a kind of consumer advocacy. The magazine’s political stance has been described as antiauthoritarian and, in some respects, libertarian—or, in Goldstein’s formulation, “dissident.”
The magazine is only one aspect of the 2600 community. Others include a Web site—which, among other things, chronicles the latest activities in the hacker world—a film company that produced a documentary on Mitnick called Freedom Downtime (2001), and 2600 Meetings, informal gatherings of people interested in technology that take place on the first Friday of every month in more than 100 cities worldwide. 2600 also sponsors a biennial convention called Hackers on Planet Earth (HOPE), held every two years in New York City.
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2600 has at times found itself in legal trouble, especially because of its ongoing opposition to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), which expanded owners’ control over digital forms of their creations and significantly curtailed activities that previously would have been considered “fair uses.” In January 2000 the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) filed suit against 2600 for violating the DMCA. The lawsuit came about after the online version of the magazine ran a story about a program that allowed users to run their lawfully acquired DVDs on Linux systems; by extension, it would also allow the DVDs’ content to be distributed over the Internet. The story contained a link to the source code, and the magazine was thus implicated in potential copyright infringement. 2600 lost the case, which was considered to have ramifications for free-speech protections (both of the program in question and of fair use in news coverage of technology), and it raised questions as to the constitutionality of the DMCA.