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0 pointsneya12y ago0 comments

The problem with Jacquesm is that he doesn't understand the term 'hacking' in general. Hopefully, I will try to explain what I know.

Jacques,

Hackernews isn't for people who hack stuff that is against the law or something like that. Why would PG want to create a site for criminals? Hackernews is for the other new generation 'hackers' (like growth hackers, design hackers) etc. Not for stuff like this.

Imagine, I rent you my apartment and you 'hack it' into a miniature casino or a drug dealership. When I rented you the apartment, I rented it to you in good faith that you wouldn't do these things. But now, you broke my trust and next time when I rent out my apartment, I would go take some extra steps like installing security cameras inside every single room of the apartment because I have to protect my apartment from unethical usage scenarios. That's the same case with Flickr. So, clearly, this is something that is destructive to someone who gives you something with a good intent. Just because you can do it, doesn't mean you should.

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jacquesm12y ago

Thanks for making it personal, I will refrain from a response on that level.

Making a proof-of-concept of something to show what you could do is not as far as I know against the law, and if it is then it shouldn't be.

Using this - and breaking the terms of service - should lead to account termination, possibly banning but definitely not a brush with law enforcement.

I can imagine all you want but this is what it is, a simple hack to show a proof-of-concept, not an incitement or example of widespread abuse bringing down a popular service.

So clearly, it is not destructive, though in theory it probably could be used as such, but then again that goes for all the hammers in my toolbox too, including the plastic ones.

Just because you can build it does not mean you can't or shouldn't, it means that you shouldn't use it. Any home chemistry set could be used to make bombs (in fact, any supermarket with a reasonable assortment could be used to make bombs). You can demonstrate such by making a small one, and you can cross the line by either making a large one or actually using it against someone or some property.

Knowledge and ability, proof of concept versus actual malicious use, it's not such a hard line to draw.

> Hackernews isn't for people who hack stuff that is against the law or something like that. Why would PG want to create a site for criminals? Hackernews is for the other new generation 'hackers' (like growth hackers, design hackers) etc. Not for stuff like this.

That's a false dichotomy for one there are other kinds of hackers (the real ones, imo, instead of the ones that borrowed a term because it was cool, 'design hacker', 'growth hacker' as the target audience for HN? and you know this how?), and simply wrong besides.

What is legal and what is not depends on many things, intent for one and location second.

fulafel12y ago

> Hackernews [sic] isn't for people who hack stuff that is against the law or something like that. [...] Imagine, I rent you my apartment and you 'hack it' into a miniature casino or a drug dealership.

This doesn't fall onto that side of the fence. This is just using a gratis service creatively. Sure it might eventually get blocked if it becomes a common thing to do, but most things like this don't.

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