Coding Freedom: The Ethics and Aesthetics of Hacking, by E. Gabriella Coleman

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This text is primarily written with the sociologist or historian on technology/communication in mind. The core idea is that coding can be a speech activity and that hacking is a cultural phenomenon. It should be noted at this point that hacker in this text is used as a non-perjorative term, for those who found and participate in coding communities (the FOSS movement is the key topic of this text). However, from a legal context this text is a useful resource for those who wish to understand how a cultural critique of intellectual property could arise from cultural perspective. Not withstanding the title, those seeking direct information on radicalized hacker/cracker groups such as ‘Anonymous’ will be disappointed. This text does not look at this kind of movement their motivations or methodologies. This is a work devoted to those who have skill and take joy in the craft and art of hacking as a constructive rather than destructive technology. Nevertheless, although not one of the explicit aims of the book, an improved understanding of the ideas around free speech and cultural expression at the mainstream end of hacker culture can act as an insight for regulators who wish to explore and manage radicalized hackerdom. Although there is no clear line of progression between the kind of coding culture explored in this text and the activities of groups such as Anonymous, there are intellectual common causes between the two. More importantly, they can help us understand the tensions inherent between the need to build online communities and cultures and the need to protect existing media producers and offline interests. As Colemen points out: In the end, it is worth taking a cue from the world of free software in two regards. It is a domain where developers balance forms of sociality and forces often treated as mutually exclusive: individuals and social cooperation, utility and artistry, altruism and self-interest, organisation and disorganization, populism and elitism, and especially individualism and social cooperation … Second, what makes these projects so interesting is not how they engender democracy writ large, or fundamentally change the warp and woof of economic and social structures, but that collaborators make technology at the same time that they experiment in the making of a social commonwealth; it is there where the hard work of freedom is practiced. (page 210)