New York City Hackers

emmanuel goldstein, 2600, cheshire catalyst, mit, 2000s, off the hook, h2k, tmrc, hacktivism, mpaa, decss, jon johansen, mike hudack, spudz, eugene kashpureff, alan kotok, john mcnamara

New York City Hackers is a documentary primarily covering 2600 Magazine and related ventures. It was completed in the year 2000 by Stig-Lennart Sorensen as part of academic program ath the University of Tromso.

The documentary opens with Emmanuel Goldstein calling recently released Kevin Mitnick during 'Off the Hook' radio show. The discussion progresses to the discussion of distinction between people who launch Denial of Service attacks and hackers.

In the next segment, Eugene Kashpureff discusses the amount of influence on the Internet that US Government possesses through its control of IP address allocations, domain name allocations, and Tier 1 business practices.

In the move to cover historical roots of hacking, New York City Hackers interviews several members of 60s Tech Model Railroad Club (TMRC). We learn about the first video game, Spacewar, from John McNamara. Alan Kotok describes early computer hacking sessions on TX-0 and exploration of telephone networks.

Back in New York, Mike Hudack, a computer security researcher, describes how he fell in love with computers. He continues his commentary during a 2600 meeting segment.

Next we move to H2K Conference and a series of interviews with its attendees. In an interview with Spudz, we learn about a wide spectrum of people who can be identified as hackers. From social engineers to electronics tinkerers, all of these people are hackers in one shape or form. Spudz also talks about hacktivists helping Chinese Internet users combat government censorship.

In another interview with Cheshire Catalyst, a high degree of politics is revealed at the conference. “We had to get into political issues because the politics are invading the technology.” He also complains about media associating hackers with 14 year old twerps who crack into computer systems.

During one of H2K's talks, Jon Johansen talks about his DeCSS trial in Norway. The worst case scenario that he had to face during the trial was a fine which was waived since Jon has no income.

Next, the film moves to a protest just outside the Court House where MPAA vs. 2600 trial is taking place. In the next segment we learn about MPAA winning the trial.

The documentary ends with Kashpureff describing hackers affecting technological developments in the interest of common people and not of commercial interests.

Overall the documentary contains a good coverage of 2600 community. While the documentary attempts to broaden its scope with coverage of MIT hackers, this segment feels out of place with the rest of the documentary. The main theme of the film tends to deal with hacktivism and political issues of hacking.