HOPE article, interview on CNET

CNET posted a piece outlining what HOPE is all about and conducted a brief interview with the conference founder and 2600 publisher Emmanuel Goldstein –

“Basically what the hackers and phone phreakers of the past were doing, everybody is doing today,” he said in an interview on Thursday. “This is the price of success; we have these fads of everybody jumping into technologies and playing with things, (but) it’s also gotten more commercial.”

Back in the day, the phone system was a “giant toy that people wanted to figure out. That’s what hacking is all about,” he said. “The interest is still there. People want to know how things work, but there’s no practical reason for (phone phreaking) beyond curiosity” because of the advent of the Internet.

Meanwhile, the widespread distribution of technology has turned millions into would-be criminals. “It’s a free-for-all as far as legal precedent goes,” Corley said. “Something you think is completely above-board, like running a program on your own computer, can be a violation of the DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act).”

– HOPE conference highlights everyday hacking

The MAKE team will be covering HOPE for its duration – we’ll be posting coverage live from the scene so keep checking back for all the deets!