Source : Free On-Line Dictionary of Computing

hacker ethic
     
         1. The belief that information-sharing is a
        powerful positive good, and that it is an ethical duty of
        hackers to share their expertise by writing free software and
        facilitating access to information and to computing resources
        wherever possible.
     
        2. The belief that system-cracking for fun and exploration is
        ethically OK as long as the cracker commits no theft,
        vandalism, or breach of confidentiality.
     
        Both of these normative ethical principles are widely, but by
        no means universally, accepted among hackers. Most hackers
        subscribe to the hacker ethic in sense 1, and many act on it
        by writing and giving away free software.  A few go further
        and assert that *all* information should be free and *any*
        proprietary control of it is bad; this is the philosophy
        behind the {GNU} project.
     
        Sense 2 is more controversial: some people consider the act of
        cracking itself to be unethical, like breaking and entering.
        But the belief that "ethical" cracking excludes destruction at
        least moderates the behaviour of people who see themselves as
        "benign" crackers (see also {samurai}).  On this view, it may
        be one of the highest forms of hackerly courtesy to (a) break
        into a system, and then (b) explain to the sysop, preferably
        by e-mail from a {superuser} account, exactly how it was done
        and how the hole can be plugged - acting as an unpaid (and
        unsolicited) {tiger team}.
     
        The most reliable manifestation of either version of the
        hacker ethic is that almost all hackers are actively willing
        to share technical tricks, software, and (where possible)
        computing resources with other hackers.  Huge cooperative
        networks such as {Usenet}, {FidoNet} and Internet (see
        {Internet address}) can function without central control
        because of this trait; they both rely on and reinforce a sense
        of community that may be hackerdom's most valuable intangible
        asset.
     
        (1995-12-18)