The Hacker Manifesto, written by The Mentor, is considered one of the most famous Hacker Manifestos worldwide. It was published in the United States on January 8, 1986. The author's purpose was to demonstrate and publish the true hacker philosophy and worldview to the world and governmental bodies. Since then, the Hacker Manifesto has been acknowledged by all major hackers as a guideline, recognized as "Astalavista" or "CCC" (Chaos Computer Club), and accepted as a Regulation by RedHack, the Red Hackers, in our country. Hackers are obliged to comply with this Regulation. Not only professional hackers but also all amateur hackers strive to comply with this Regulation. If these amateur hackers also consider themselves to be called illegal...

The "manifesto," short but meaningful, is as follows:

Today another one was caught, he was all over the newspapers. "A youth arrested for computer crime," "Hacker caught after bank fraud"... Damn kids.

They're all the same.

But have you ever tried to understand what's going on behind a hacker's eyes with your 1950s technobrain and your three-piece psychology? What brought him to this point? What forces shaped him, molded him? I am a hacker, enter my world... Mine is a world that begins with school... I'm smarter than most of the other kids, this crap they teach us bores me... Damn underachiever.

They're all the same.

I'm in junior high or high school. I've listened to teachers explain for the fifteenth time how to reduce a fraction. I understand it. "No, Mrs. Smith, I didn't show my work. I did it in my head..." Damn kid. Probably copied it.

They're all the same.

I made a discovery today. I found a computer. Wait a second, this is cool. It does what I want it to. If it makes a mistake, it's because I screwed it up. Not because it doesn't like me... Or feels threatened by me... Or thinks I'm a smartass... Or doesn't like teaching and shouldn't be here... Damn kid. All he does is play games.

They're all the same.

And then it happened... a door opened to a world... rushing through the phone line like heroin through an addict's veins, an electronic pulse is sent out, a refuge from the day-to-day incompetencies is sought... a board is found. "This is it... this is where I belong." I know everyone here... even if I've never met them, never talked to them, may never hear from them again... I know you all... Damn kid. Tying up the phone line again.

They're all the same.

You bet your ass we're all alike... we've been spoon-fed baby food at school when we hungered for steak... the bits of meat that you did let slip through were pre-chewed and tasteless. We've been dominated by sadists, or ignored by the apathetic. The few that had something to teach found us willing pupils, but those few are like drops of water in the desert. This is our world now... the world of the electron and the switch, the beauty of the baud. We make use of a service already existing without paying for what could be dirt-cheap if it wasn't run by profiteering gluttons, and you call us criminals. We explore... and you call us criminals. We seek after knowledge... and you call us criminals. We exist without skin color, without nationality, without religious bias... and you call us criminals. You build atomic bombs, you wage wars, you murder, cheat, and lie to us and try to make us believe it's for our own good, yet we're the criminals. Yes, I am a criminal. My crime is that of curiosity. My crime is that of judging people by what they say and think, not what they look like. My crime is that of outsmarting you, something that you will never forgive me for. I am a hacker, and this is my manifesto. You may stop this individual, but you can't stop us all.

Above all, we are all the same.

The Mentor (January 8, 1986)