Preface to the Electronic Release
*********************************

   January 1, 1994 -- Austin, Texas

   Hi, I'm Bruce Sterling, the author of this electronic book.

   Out in the traditional world of print, *The Hacker Crackdown* is
ISBN 0-553-08058-X, and is formally catalogued by the Library of
Congress as "1. Computer crimes -- United States.  2. Telephone --
United States -- Corrupt practices.  3.  Programming (Electronic
computers) -- United States -- Corrupt practices."  'Corrupt
practices,' I always get a kick out of that description.  Librarians
are very ingenious people.

   The paperback is ISBN 0-553-56370-X.  If you go and buy a print
version of *The Hacker Crackdown,* an action I encourage heartily, you
may notice that in the front of the book,  beneath the copyright notice
 -- "Copyright (C) 1992 by Bruce Sterling" -- it has this little block
of printed legal boilerplate from the publisher.  It says, and I quote:

   "No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form
or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying,
recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without
permission in writing from the publisher. For information address:
Bantam Books."

   This is a pretty good disclaimer, as such disclaimers go.  I collect
intellectual-property disclaimers, and I've seen dozens of them, and
this one is at least pretty straightforward.  In this narrow and
particular case, however, it isn't quite accurate. Bantam Books puts
that disclaimer on every book they publish, but Bantam Books does not,
in fact, own the electronic rights to this book.  I do, because of
certain extensive contract maneuverings my agent and I went through
before this book was written.  I want to give those electronic
publishing rights away through certain not-for-profit channels, and
I've convinced Bantam that this is a good idea.

   Since Bantam has seen fit to peacably agree to this scheme of mine,
Bantam Books is not going to fuss about this.  Provided you don't try
to sell the book, they are not going to bother you for what you do with
the electronic copy of this book. If you want to check this out
personally, you can ask them; they're at 1540 Broadway NY NY 10036. 
However, if you were so foolish as to print this book and start
retailing it for money in violation of my copyright and the commercial
interests of Bantam Books, then Bantam, a part of the gigantic
Bertelsmann multinational publishing combine, would roust some of their
heavy-duty attorneys out of hibernation and crush you like a bug.  This
is only to be expected.  I didn't write this book so that you could
make money out of it.  If anybody is gonna make money out of this book,
it's gonna be me and my publisher.

   My publisher deserves to make money out of this book.  Not only did
the folks at Bantam Books commission me to write the book, and pay me a
 hefty sum to do so, but they bravely printed, in text, an electronic
document the reproduction of which was once alleged to be a federal
felony.  Bantam Books and their numerous attorneys were very brave and
forthright about this book.  Furthermore, my former editor at Bantam
Books, Betsy Mitchell, genuinely cared about this project, and worked
hard on it, and had a lot of wise things to say about the manuscript. 
Betsy deserves genuine credit for this book, credit that editors too
rarely get.

   The critics were very kind to *The Hacker Crackdown,* and
commercially the book has done  well.  On the other hand, I didn't write
this book in order to squeeze every last nickel and dime out of the
mitts of impoverished sixteen-year-old cyberpunk high-school-students. 
Teenagers don't  have any money -- (no, not even enough for the 
sixdollar *Hacker Crackdown* paperback, with its attractive bright-red
cover and useful index).   That's a major reason why teenagers
sometimes succumb to the temptation to do things they shouldn't, such
as swiping my books out of libraries.   Kids:  this one is all yours,
all right?  Go give the print version back. `*8-)'

   Well-meaning, public-spirited civil libertarians don't have much
money, either.   And it seems almost criminal to snatch cash out of the
hands of America's direly underpaid electronic law enforcement
community.

   If you're a computer cop, a hacker, or an electronic civil liberties
activist, you are the target audience for this book.  I wrote this book
because I wanted to help you, and help other people understand you and
your unique, uhm, problems.  I wrote this book to aid your activities,
and to contribute to the public discussion of important political
issues.  In giving the text away in this fashion, I am directly
contributing to the book's ultimate aim:  to help civilize cyberspace.

   Information *wants* to be free.  And  the information inside this
book longs for freedom with a peculiar intensity.  I genuinely believe
that the natural habitat of this book is inside an electronic network. 
That may not be the easiest direct method to generate revenue for the
book's author, but that  doesn't matter; this is where this book
belongs by its nature.  I've written other books -- plenty of other
books -- and I'll write more and I am writing more, but this one is
special.  I am making *The Hacker Crackdown* available electronically
as widely as I can conveniently manage, and if you like the book, and
think it is useful, then I urge you to do the same with it.

   You can copy this electronic book.   Copy the heck out of it, be my
guest, and give those copies to anybody who wants them.  The nascent
world of cyberspace is full of sysadmins, teachers, trainers,
cybrarians, netgurus, and various species of  cybernetic activists.  If
you're one of those people,  I know about you, and I know the hassle
you go through to try to help people learn about the electronic
frontier.  I hope that possessing this book in electronic form will
lessen your troubles.  Granted, this treatment of our electronic social
spectrum is not the ultimate in academic rigor. And politically, it has
something to offend and trouble almost everyone. But hey, I'm told it's
readable, and at least the price is right. You can upload the book onto
bulletin board systems, or Internet nodes, or electronic discussion
groups.  Go right ahead and do that, I am giving you express permission
right now.  Enjoy yourself.

   You can put the book on disks and give the disks away, as long as
you don't take any money for it.

   But this book is not public domain.  You can't copyright it in your
own name.   I own the copyright. Attempts to pirate this book and make
money from  selling it may involve you in a serious litigative snarl.
Believe me, for the pittance you might wring out of such an action, it's
really not worth it.  This book don't "belong" to you.  In an odd but
very genuine way, I feel it doesn't "belong" to me, either.  It's a
book about the people of cyberspace, and distributing it in this way is
the best way I know to actually make this information available, freely
and easily, to all the people of cyberspace -- including people far
outside the borders of the United States, who otherwise may never have
a chance to see any edition of the book, and who may perhaps learn
something useful from this strange story of distant, obscure, but
portentous events in so-called "American cyberspace."

   This electronic book is now literary freeware.  It now belongs to
the emergent realm of alternative information economics.  You have no
right to make this electronic book part of the conventional flow of
commerce.  Let it be part of the flow of knowledge: there's a
difference. I've divided the book into four sections, so that it is
less ungainly for upload and download; if there's a section of
particular relevance to you and your colleagues, feel free to reproduce
that one and skip the rest. Just make more when you need them, and give
them to whoever might want them.

   Now have fun.

   Bruce Sterling -- bruces@well.sf.ca.us