B&N Pulls Linux Format Magazine Over Feature On 'Hacking' 301
New accepted submitter super_rancid writes that issue 154 of the "UK-based Linux Format magazine was pulled from Barnes and Noble bookstores in the U.S. after featuring an article called 'Learn to Hack'. They used 'hack' in the populist security sense, rather than the traditional sense, and the feature — which they put online — was used to illustrate how poor your server's security is likely to be by breaking into it."
Good for them! (Score:5, Funny)
That's because Linux is an OS used predominately by criminals to hack machines. I appluad Barnes and Noble for this responsible reaction.
Re:Good for them! (Score:5, Interesting)
since they still sell 2600 it'smore likely it has something do do with this:
http://hardware.slashdot.org/story/12/04/30/1359214/microsoft-invests-300-million-in-nook-e-readers [slashdot.org]
big surprise
Re:Good for them! (Score:5, Insightful)
Re: (Score:3)
TFA states it was pulled "after a complaint" (note singular).
Likely from a small town in Northwest Washington...
I have trouble believing this is the only reason. They pulled all of them from all of their stores in America? I have trouble believing that a single complaint was the only reason. "Never attribute to malice what can adequately be explained by stupidity," goes the quote, and I think it applies here.
True, but that's a whole lot of stupid going on...
Re:Good for them! (Score:5, Insightful)
I have trouble believing either the reason B&N gave, or your more sinister reason. My counter to both of them is contained in this link:
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/linux-hacking?keyword=linux+hacking&store=allproducts [barnesandnoble.com]
Which shows the result of typing "linux hacking" into the barnesandnoble.com search box. They sell literally dozens of titles on the subject of hacking and Linux, Some of which use the "tinkering with" definition of hacking, and others of which use the "breaking into" definition. I've seen many of these books in the physical stores too. This sounds like some management weenie over reacting to a complaint and little else.
Re:Good for them! (Score:4, Informative)
I have trouble believing either the reason B&N gave, or your more sinister reason.
From the Linux Format website (issue 154):
Learn to Hack
Attack Servers, crack passwords, exploit services, beat encryption - everything you need to be evil. (Ben Everard)
That sounds a little more nefarious than the summary implies.
Re: (Score:3)
well, the webpage shows better intent:
"Attack servers, crack passwords, exploit services, beat encryption - everything you need to protect yourself from evil."
But it amounts to the same thing. This information is out there. You should be learning from it and protecting your information instead of trying to censor it as some sort of apology of crime. Anyone who is interested in "doing evil" and capable enough to do so, will surely find lots of ways they can gather that information online or even f
Re:Good for them! (Score:4, Insightful)
Populist security sense? (Score:3, Insightful)
They used 'hack' in the populist security sense
WTF is that?
To 99% of the world, a hacker is someone who steals your password, your money, puts kiddie porn on your computer and publishes all your email.
Like it or not, folks doing legitimate security assessments or building custom gadgets, etc. would do well to come up with term other than "Hacker".
Re:Populist security sense? (Score:5, Interesting)
they screwed up the meaning not us, why should we come up with a new term because they are computer illiterate.
Re:Populist security sense? (Score:5, Informative)
Exactly!
I'm a CRACKER not a hacker. Get it right. (No just kidding..... but I should post that on news sites just to see what reaction I get.)
Re: (Score:3)
Racist...
Re:Populist security sense? (Score:5, Insightful)
You can't argue with market realities. You can be smart. rebrand yourselves and build that brand in a respectable manner, or you can be a stupid 10 year old and throw a tantrum and still be associated with spammers and thieves.
Your choice.
Re:Populist security sense? (Score:5, Informative)
The new rebrand is "Security Researcher". I haven't seen that get culture-broken yet.
Re: (Score:3)
rebrand yourselves and build that brand in a respectable manner
I am not a brand, I am not a commodity, I am not something that is being advertised. Why should I care about what people who would not write a program to compute 2+2 think about the word "hacker?"
Hackers have every right to criticize the media's use of the term and the media's portrayal of "hacking." If ignorance is not criticized, it will propagate.
Re:Populist security sense? (Score:5, Insightful)
Ah, I see you're a Linux Kernel Developer. "I am technically correct, so I don't have to listen about usability."
Here's an example: swastika. Immediately, you're thinking of 40s era Europe, right?
The Germans used the swastika for 6 years. It's been around for THOUSANDS of years as a Sanskrit symbol, but you put up one little flag and point at it with your arm and suddenly YOU'RE the bad guy.
Sycodon is right, a new term has to be coined, and not hat colours.
Re: (Score:3)
as Shakespeare said A rose by any other name would smell as sweet, it the same thing. changing our name which when used by us is a term of respect, would changing our name change what we are? we are still the same, unfortunately the negative connotation that the outside world has for us would fallow to the new name mostly because we are an under valued hated but necessary part of the modern world. without us the world around us would slow to a halt because it is all built off of computers and networks only
Re:Populist security sense? (Score:4, Informative)
No, and interestingly enough, this is a tangetial example of names being used incorrectly.
Godwin's Law is not _any_ mention of Hitler or the Nazis. It requires an unfavorable comparison to Nazi Germany or Hitler. Since nothing we've done is as bad as massacring 12+ million civilians, the comparison is ridiculous. Further, the rule is "any flame war shall eventually result in somone comparing someone else or their actions to Nazi Germany. That person loses."
Examples are: "The Nazis had really strict rules about this too!", "You imagine yourself a little Hitler with parades and... and... people saluting you", and, "You know who else liked to invade Poland?"
In other words, you can talk about The Luftwaffe, Swastikas, Panzer design, WW2 re-enactments, etc. without invoking Godwin's Law.
Re: (Score:3)
Being self-righteous about it wont prevent people from misunderstanding you. You have two options:
* Deal with it
* Be snooty about it, and continue to wonder why people get the wrong idea when you say "hacker"
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
...why should we come up with a new term because they are computer illiterate.
Because you don't want the computer illiterate to confuse you with someone who is doing something illegal?
Language changes; you can change with it, or you can be frustrated all the time because people misunderstand the term you choose to use to describe yourself.
Re: (Score:2)
Agreed. Ninety-nine percent is a bit high, but my dictionary and others say that it means to break into a computer illegally. The AP Stylebook, which governs most media coverage, says the term "hacker" "has evolved to mean one who uses computer skills to unlawfully penetrate proprietary computer systems."
Since the meaning of "hack" has evolved, or at the very least is evolving into this negative sense, automated computer systems flag it.
Maybe the magazine can contact a live person. Or find a different word
Re:Populist security sense? (Score:4, Insightful)
AP Styleguide? One set of idiot reporters telling another set of reporters how to speak about technology the 1st set does not understand. Talk about the blind leading the blind.
Re: (Score:3)
Re: (Score:3)
At one time a "computer" was a person. But that word has evolved as well...
Re: (Score:2)
My interpretation is that they used 'hack' the same way you do rather than the traditional sense meaning something more like building custom gadgets.
Re: (Score:2)
Hacking riding a horse for pleasure
I'm going hacking = I am going horse riding
Depends on the context and who you are speaking to what it means ...
Re: (Score:2)
Re:Good for them! (Score:5, Funny)
Using Linux is kind of like being one of the kids whose parents were alcoholics but did their best, in between drunken rants about the futility of life.
I would finish this by saying using Windows is like being one of the kids whose uncle used to have special sleep over parties, but I'd definitely get modded flamebait. And I use Windows on my personal machines. And my uncle didn't touch me.
Re: (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Good for them! (Score:4, Funny)
Using Linux is kind of like being one of the kids whose parents were alcoholics but did their best, in between drunken rants about the futility of life.
Well, MY distro has the parents on methadone. It's clearly superior.
Re:Good for them! (Score:4, Funny)
Using Linux is kind of like being one of the kids whose parents were alcoholics but did their best, in between drunken rants about the futility of life.
Well, MY distro has the parents on methadone. It's clearly superior.
Ah, OpenBSD. Did you notice they just released their latest the other day?
Using Linux is like being a one eyed telepath in a world full of blind people, and you smell funny, so they grimace at you when you pass them but they don't have any clue why they need to.
[/.: "26 6 * * * /usr/local/bin/varnish_the_damned_cache_when_users_are_asleep"]
Re:Good for them! (Score:4, Insightful)
WIndows is like being raised in Stepford.
Re: (Score:3)
WIndows is like being raised in Stepford.
Truer words were never written. Good one.
Microsoft: "We tried to be an Apple, but failed miserably, yet we wound up selling like hotcakes anyway. Go figure."
Re: (Score:3)
Adjective Building (Score:5, Informative)
Merriam-Webster:
First known use of PREDOMINATELY: 1594
Even if its used predominantly in America, it's a good bet predominately didn't originate here.
"To predominate" is a verb, "predominant" is an adjective. At some point in time, someone built an adjective off of the verb.
My favorite bit of vestigial English preserved in the colonies -- especially in the midwest -- is "gotten."
And it's not a colloquialism; it's used in formal American English.
"What have you gotten?" (obtained) vs. "What have you got?" (possession)
(There's actually another Americanism in a sentence above. We typically say "off of" while the British say simply "off.")
Re: (Score:3)
Re: (Score:3)
Correct or not, "what have you gotten" has a different connotation from "what did you get". (It's similar to the French imparfait vs. the passé-composé.) The former phrase denotes an action that may have occurred over time and may or may not be complete (cf: 'What have you gotten so far?'), while the latter implies that the action is finished. And while I despise the misuse of grammar as much as the next !z, I have to rule for the finesse of meaning with this phrase.
Re: (Score:3)
That's an interesting distinction, and I suppose the continuous version I would use is "what have you got?" rather than "what have you gotten?". While it's a request for inventory ignoring the process of acquisition, the verbicular acquisition is redundant due to an implication that that which has been acquired has been so from a starting point of nil. (See what I did there? I just adjectivised a verb! Ooooh, I just verberated a noun too!!!!)
So I guess the truly pedantic version are as follows (US English -
Streisand effect in 3, 2, 1! (Score:3, Insightful)
Odds are that Linux Format magazine is about to see an increase in circulation.
But... but... (Score:5, Insightful)
Say what?
I used to pick up my copies of 2600 at a local B&N years ago...
Sad.
Re:But... but... (Score:5, Insightful)
Yes, but they cleverly named them "Reference you don't understand or care about" rather than "Pop culture meme that doesn't mean what you think it should mean.
Name better, Try again.
Still there (Score:3)
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/d2600-magazine-2600-magazine/1108150347?ean=2940013699236 [barnesandnoble.com]
Pulled for false advertising (Score:4, Funny)
With a title like "Learn to Hack" you're expecting instructions about chopping up things like bodies, not about poor server security.
Re:Pulled for false advertising (Score:5, Funny)
Obligatory (Score:3)
Re: (Score:3)
And yet (Score:5, Insightful)
They'll happily stock martial arts magazines, full of special features about new and exciting ways to hurt people.
Re: (Score:2)
It's about the MONEY (Score:3)
Alternatively, the solution is simple: Let's all go visit Barnes and noble today and ask them for that particular issue. When they see how much MONEY they could be making by selling it, they may change their tune.
2600 (Score:2)
That is really odd, as my local B&N was still carrying 2600 last time I was in, and there are similar articles in every issue.
Shut up! (Score:3)
US$300M effect? (Score:3, Interesting)
Could it be that the buyout of B&N by Microsoft has produced the first victim?
Or just a "unfortunate coincidence" that the magazine censured over a word is a Linux magazine?
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
There was no buyout.
B&N spun off a subsidiary (which doesn't handle this sort of thing) and Microsoft took a minority stake in that subsidiary (so even the subsidiary was not bought out).
Re: (Score:2)
Or just a "unfortunate coincidence" that the magazine censured over a word is a Linux magazine?
I love a good conspiracy theory, but it feels like this has a lot more stupid/dumbth involved (since 2600 is still allowed) than it does evil/malevolence. However, that could just be me.
Example why brick and mortar bookstores dying (Score:5, Insightful)
Re: (Score:3)
I used to work for a UK bookshop who had a very forward looking view on things - if it wasn't illegal, they'd sell it if there was demand. We had complaints from the local university's Jewish Society about the fact that we sold Mein Kampf, which is not only legal but on several reading lists. The response was a more tactful version of "would you like us to make a big pile and burn them?"
There's plenty
2600 Magazine? (Score:2)
I used to go to Barnes and Noble to buy 2600 Magazine because it was the only place in town that carried it. This was in the Midwestern US in the mid-1990s. I guess times have changed (OK I know times have changed).
Graded: Incomplete (Score:2)
They missed 2600. The b&st@rds.
When they pull that, I have -1 reasons to go to B&N. And since they bought my data from Borders and spammed me immediately, I've been a little peeved at them. Now I can explain to the wife how buying books at Amazon isn't hurting the local seller. The local seller is well capable of hurting itself.
1337 (Score:2)
Next issue: Rooting the Nook? (Score:2)
I suggest Linux Format Magazine picks up the pace. They should feature a "hacking" article EVERY ISSUE.
In fact, I'm thinking about going into publishing a HACKING magazine right now. With Blackjack and Hookers....
2600 magazine rules that niche, but maybe with something like "HACKING" right on the cover, they'd give me lots of free publicity by pulling it.
BTW: How is it that they carry MAKE magazine? Technically, that's hacking as well...
They prefer that customers buy (Score:4, Interesting)
less dangerous reading material [barnesandnoble.com] that has hurt no one.
Re:They prefer that customers buy (Score:5, Funny)
Crap. I just violated Godwin's Law, didn't I?
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Dear Barnes and Noble (Score:5, Insightful)
Stop being stupid.
I cut my teeth on articles about "hacking". I've used "hacking" tools going back to the one that got Dan Farmer fired, and before. My interest in security was sparked by downloading an exploit for the Solaris eject command. Download, compile, omg! Root prompt!
The catch? I did all those things on boxes I was paid to secure. I've never broken into anyone's systems but my own, and I have legitimate rights to do that. Information is information. It's not "good" or "bad". I have a bookshelf full of books, mostly bought in your stores, that could teach you how to "hack" or how to secure systems and networks. Guess what I've been paid to do for going on 20 years?
Did they not learn..... (Score:2)
From the 2600 lawsuit? a few years ago B&N was refusing to carry them in the stores, and 2600 sued them, or at least threatened to and they put them back.
I don't have a subscription to Linux magazine... (Score:2)
...but I am going to get one now.
Unacceptable... a bookseller doesn't have the right to assert opinion in this manor.
Re: (Score:3)
Of course the have the right. It's their shop.
Re: (Score:2)
The shouldn't assert it in a castle, estate or roundhouse either...
B&N could have destroyed Apple (Score:5, Informative)
If, in the 70's they pulled Esquire Magazine for carrying the article "Secrets of the Little Blue Box", an article that described phone phreaking.
This inspired Steve Jobs to convince friend Woz to design and build Blue boxes, which eventually lead to the founding of Apple... now the biggest company in the world...
Apple started from hacker/phreaker roots, and inspired by an article published in a magazine. Just imagine the damage they've done to the future by pulling this Magazine.
Re:B&N could have destroyed Apple (Score:4, Insightful)
Actually, Woz built the blue box on his own. Jobs convinced him he could sell it for like $125 or so (it cost $25 to build). But those were really just the prankish college days. To found Apple, Woz had to hock his beloved HP calculator in order to buy the parts necessary to build the Apple 1.
Jobs and Woz were friends very early on (started in childhood).
Anyhow, I think the damage caused these days would be far less than in the 70s. Firstly, it seems deadtree is dying in favor of electronic media, and I'm sure anyone who can't find the deadtree can find billions of similar articles online, if not going to the official website and reading it there. In the 70s, magazines were timely and important sources of information. These days, not so much since the Internet is far faster at it.
Hypocrisy (Score:3)
No big deal (Score:3)
That's okay, I'll just head down the street to buy a copy from .... Oh, wait .... I know! I'll just go online and order it off .... Oh, shoot. Hmm, where did all the competition go? Oh well, I guess I'll just read whatever B&N or Amazon recommend for me..... Aaah, Excel For Dummies. Excellent.
Re: (Score:3)
That's okay, I'll just head down the street to buy a copy from .... Oh, wait .... I know! I'll just go online and order it off .... Oh, shoot. Hmm, where did all the competition go?
Where it inevitably goes in anything approaching the mythical free and open market - into a steadily decreasing pool of competitors until there is, effectively, no competition. Now shut up and consume from the holy capitalist system like a good citizen.
But they seel this book? (Score:5, Insightful)
Scarne on Cards
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/scarne-on-cards-john-scarn/1104279175?ean=9780451167651 [barnesandnoble.com]
Teaches you how to cheat at card games.
Originally produced for the US Army during WW2, it was designed to reveal methods of cheating so a soldier could tell when he was being cheated, just like the Linux Format article.
Understanding bad people is not the same as being a bad person; ignorance is neither power nor protection.
Hmmm ... (Score:3)
Where does everybody get the sense that back in the day we didn't use the word for both of those things?
In 1988, a hack was used to describe a clever tweak of something to do something new, social engineering, and security intrusions. And, as far as I know, had been used in those ways for some time.
I've simply never gotten this whole "it's crack not hack" stuff, because it feels like we're changing after the fact how the word was actually used in practice. But when I was in highschool in the mid 80s, hacker was the only word we used -- 'cracker' came later.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
But when I was in highschool in the mid 80s, hacker was the only word we used -- 'cracker' came later.
When I was in jr high and high school (mid 80's to early 90's)...and I BBSed a lot...a hacker was someone who gained unauthorized access to a computer. Cracking was used to describe people who circumvented copy protection.
Re: (Score:2)
H = Hacking (breaking into networks)
P = Phreaking (hacking the phone system)
A = Anarchy (text files on bomb making)
V = Viruses (virus sources)
C = Cracking (defeating copy protection)
At least this is how we classified these things.
So does this mean they are policing content? (Score:3)
If so, does that mean they are responsible for the content of the other 499 magazines + 20000 books in their store?
By the way, did any store ban The New Republic when they published a possibly pedophilic article [firstthings.com] 17 years ago? Or the National Review when they continued to publish what may be seen as racist articles into this decade? I don't know if they did, just wondering.
is your son a computer "hacker"? (Score:4, Funny)
And yet... (Score:2)
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/best-of-2600-emmanuel-goldstein/1102658944?ean=9780470294192 [barnesandnoble.com]
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/2600-magazine-2600-magazine/1104039139?ean=2940014186568 [barnesandnoble.com]
It's 2012 (Score:3)
What's a bookstore?
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3)
No, the major US creditor is internal US debt. China owns 7% of the total US debt, which is 30% of the foreign debt.
Read the 1st amendment first. (Score:5, Informative)
Re: (Score:2)
I just subscribed to Linux Format.
NOT through B&N.
Keep-up the good work and soon you'll be like Circuit Sity.
Re:Freedom of speech is not the issue here (Score:3)
Which US Law that is violating our first Amendment rights that would require B & N to take it down... Perhaps B & N is worried about something.
Though your grammar and sentence structure make it difficult be certain, it appears that you seem to think that the First Ammendment applies here. If so, you are very much mistaken. Stupid even. B&N can choose to sell, or not sell, anything they want
Re: (Score:2)
I wouldn't want them if they were free ... not backlit ...
Not to be rude, but what cave are you reading magazines in that doesn't have sufficient light to read a magazine?
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
I do. They accept a level of abuse which would kill every electronic device.
Re: (Score:2)
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/hacking?store=ALLPRODUCTS&keyword=hacking [barnesandnoble.com]
Man, I don't get it, there must be more to it than just "omg, they are legionz PULL ALL THE THINGS!!!!!"
Re: (Score:2)
So, please tell me exactly when we started to differentiate that way. I would dearly love to know this, and I've never been able to figure out exactly where it came from.
In the mid 80's, it was hacker for both. To me 'cracker' is a term which started in the late 90s or so long after plenty of us were already using the word hacker to describe both of those.
I've never bought this distinction, because it sounds arbitrary, and completely doesn't agree with the usage that was widespread at the time.
Someone cam
Re: (Score:2)
Well.
You're wrong.
Watch some old C64 Demos from pirate groups, or opening crawls from pirated games. "Cracker" and "cracking" is a term that has been around for a long, long time. Pre-1985. Example: "(c) This game cracked by Phreakers. L8mers go home."
Re: (Score:2)
So say you. I'm familiar with the usage, but the 'crack' would have been done by a 'hacker'.
The crack purely denoted a version which had the copyright broken. It was still widely described as hacking.
Re: (Score:3)
From what I've read (not old enough to have lived through it), the innocent form of the work hacker goes back at least as far as the 60s. The MIT model railroad club dictionary is the most commonly cited documentation of it's usage, but it was more widespread than than). Through the 70's it was used in a neutral sense for someone who makes clever technical hacks, and didn't have any security or legal connotations. So phreakers were hackers, not because they broke into phone system, but because they made cle
Re: (Score:2)
Wow, are you from the PAST? That's was a valid point in 1995, now it's too late.
And you definitions are fucking stupid.
- hacker == hobbyist; enginner(sic) or technician - moral position is irrelevant
- cracker == thief; like a safecracker - moral position is irrelevant.
also - People who broke copy control, or modified games where also called crackers. Of course you don't seem me whining that everybody should keep using that term by its 1985 definition.
Re: (Score:2)
See, people here don't understand the news. Hacker does X is the same as Driver does X.
IN the news, X will be a 'bad' thing. That doesn't not mean all Drivers or hackers are bad.
Re: (Score:3)
Yeah, they really jewed us hackers out of that term :(
Re:Calling B.S. on this one... (Score:4, Insightful)
Echo: Bravo - Sierra
Publicity / maybe a local story "with legs"
BN sells books on Metaspolit, wardriving, and even "Steal magazines.
Idea: maybe if one or two complaints causes this kind of reaction, imagine if their phones were to experience the /. phenomenon and just 0.05% of us complained, say about the sadism and child abuse in "The Hunger Games", or the mediocrity of the last Moby album?
Can we use the power of /. for the good of society? !
Nah.. nevermind.. no profit involved. Bask to work.
Re: (Score:3)
Just because one or two people may use hammer to hurt others, doesn't mean all shops should be banned from selling them.
I just used that same thing at the dinner table last night defending computers in general. You can use a hammer to build a house or to bash in someone's head. It's just a tool. If they couldn't find a hammer, there's lots of other tools they could find that would suffice. Al Capone liked baseball bats, according to the movie.
P. S. I like baseball bats too. That doesn't mean I want to bash anyone's head in.