Mark asked:

What is civil disobedience? someone told me that the activities of hackers can be justified by this
concept. How can that be?

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Politically, civil disobedience is an act against governmental authority motivated by a moral objection.
Philosophically, civil disobedience can be justified I think by maintaining a distinction between "The
Right" and "The Good", where the right is prior to the good. In other words, the right thing to do is not
necessarily the good thing to do.

For example, it is not a good thing to riot or throw custard pies in people's faces, but it is right to
protest against exploitation, corporate greed and globalization.

Civil disobedience, unlike casual or criminal disobedience is selective and purposeful. Usually acts
performed under this title serve to draw attention to unjust laws or conditions. Perhaps the greatest
example of civil disobedience came from Mohatma Ghandi who declared British denial of freedom to
the Indians as unjust and therefore a moral issue.

Whether hacking can be justified by civil disobedience depends, I would suggest, on the individual
act. Currently in Britain there is a political issue over the revision to the Freedom of Information Act
which would in fact severely restrict the information that could be revealed. Now, if a hacker could
produce important public information that has been withheld, I think such acts could be justified.

However, as in the recent case of the "Luv Bug" (though not a strict case of hacking), e-mail viruses
or other actions that have the potential to ruin personal lives I would consider examples of criminal
acts and therefore not justified on the grounds of civil disobedience.

Brian Tee
Dept of Philosophy
University of Sheffield.