Author Archives: F. E. Guerra-Pujol

We’ve shared many examples of “Lego Art” in previous blog posts (see here). This spring, 13 new works of LEGO art are on display at Leu Gardens in Orlando, Florida. These works are by Lego artist Sean Kenney. (Check out … Continue reading →

The Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA) is a federal law that imposes criminal and civil penalties on computer hackers. The original version of this law made it a federal crime to access government computers without authorization or in excess … Continue reading →

According to the 2010 film “The Social Network” (see page 27 of the movie script), the Harvard Ad Board accused Zuckerberg of “violating copyrights” (among other things) when he created Facemash. Really? This allegation may sound plausible. After all, creators … Continue reading →

Thus far, we have wondered whether Harvard sophomore Mark Zuckerberg may have committed a tort when he created Facemash back in ’03. Broadly speaking, whether an act or omission constitutes a civil tort depends on the common law of the … Continue reading →

In my previous post, we considered Facemash from Harvard’s perspective, so we asked whether Mark Zuckerberg–the Harvard hacker and creator of Facemash–committed the tort of conversion or the tort of trespass to chattels when he hacked into the University’s computer … Continue reading →

A major source of local (i.e. State) law in the USA is judge-made common law. In fact, major areas of local law–including torts, contracts, and property–are based on well-established common law principles. Here, we will focus on the law of … Continue reading →

In a previous post, we reviewed the ethics of Facemash and saw that not all hackers are “bad.” (From a moral perspective, whether hacking is “good” or “bad” depends in large part on the internal motivation of the hacker.) Now, … Continue reading →

Below are five essays and articles discussing various ethical aspects of hacking or the ethics of teaching how to become a computer hacker: Loyd Blankenship (a/k/a The Mentor), The Conscience of a Hacker (8 January 1986),  available here, via archive.org. … Continue reading →

Let’s consider the ethics of Facemash and computer hacking generally. (We will study the law of hacking at a later time.) Although hackers are often shadowy actors, lurking behind the scenes, it turns out that hacking isn’t always wrong. Among … Continue reading →