Author Archives: F. E. Guerra-Pujol

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 →

Today (1/26) was my first day of class! But I won’t be giving or recording any lectures this semester. In fact, this semester marks the first time in almost 20 years of teaching (I began teaching in August of 1998) … Continue reading →

Nozick grapples with Locke’s famous proviso (the one purporting to limit the right of private ownership) in the last few pages of Section I of Chapter 7 of ASU. In brief, according to Locke, the initial acquisition of private property … Continue reading →

Nozick devotes the next few pages of Chapter 7 (pp. 174-182) to Locke’s “sweat equity” or labor theory of property rights acquisition and to the so-called “Lockean proviso” — the moral claim that everyone has a right to acquire land … Continue reading →

Nozick continues his devastating critique of so many theories of distributive justice on pp. 167-174 of ASU. He is on a major roll now, and his arguments are compelling. Here is just a small sample of some of Nozick’s most … Continue reading →