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Among academics, journalists, and hackers, it is common to define hackers not only by their inquisitive demeanor, the extreme joy they garner from uninterrupted hacking sprints, and the technological artifacts they create but also by the “hacker ethic.” Journalist Steven Levy first defined the hacker ethic in Hackers: Heroes of the Revolution, published in 1984. The hacker ethic is shorthand for a mix of aesthetic and pragmatic imperatives: a commitment to information freedom, a mistrust of authority, a heightened dedication to meritocracy, and the firm belief that computers can be the basis for beauty and a better world. 1 In many respects, the fact that academics, journalists, and many hackers refer to the existence of this ethic is testament not only to the superb account that Levy offers—it is still one of the finest and most thoroughgoing accounts on hacking—but to the fact that the hacker ethic in the most general sense …