Is 2600 Still Relevant?

by aestetix

Why is a print magazine for hackers still relevant?  Moreover, why should anyone write articles for it, when things like blogs, websites, and digital tech magazines exist?  After all, does anyone really transcribe computer code and other things from paper into a computer anymore?  These are all great questions to ask, and to address them, we need to look hard at the nature of this magazine.

The first reason 2600 is relevant is precisely because it is in print.  Although in recent years they have introduced the digital counterpart, the best way to experience the magazine is to buy the print edition, ideally in cash, possibly while wearing a privacy mask.  Readers of the magazine value things like freedom of speech and freedom of expression, and we must remember that the law trails behind technology.  In the United States, the First Amendment was specifically crafted to protect the printed word.  We have unfortunately seen many cases of websites being taken offline for dubious reasons, but it is much harder for the U.S. government to make a solid legal case to prevent the sale of a printed magazine.  While having the PDF and other digital formats is great, not everyone thinks a magazine about hacking and bypassing security systems should be able to exist, and if the PDF version gets shut down, the print version will still survive.

The second reason is scary.

In recent years, we've seen technologies like deepfakes and advanced digital manipulation tools that can fool all but the most experienced digital forensics experts.  Some readers might recall when Amazon removed the books 1984 and Animal Farm from users' Kindle libraries, when companies silently modified their terms of service to make their services more profitable for themselves, or when newspapers adjusted wording to remove incorrect reporting without posting amendment notes.  The printed medium is a security against digital forgery and historical rewriting.  Imagine that some evil hacker figures out a way to modify a PDF of 2600 from a few years ago and rewrites an article to make it look like the author said some extremely offensive things.  Any regular reader could pull the print copy off the shelf and interject what the author actually said.  In an era of fake news, that print copy can be a powerful tool to tell the truth - provided that people will listen.

Another big reason is that, while blogs and digital tech magazines are easy to publish and easier to share with people, they also have a short half-life.  Consider how often an online article from ten years ago is full of dead links and broken images.  While the Internet Archive is an invaluable resource, it also becomes a single point of failure.  Most readers will understand that websites require upkeep: paying for hosting, renewing domain names, etc.  How often does a tech blog start out with great intentions, only to hit reality after a few years and crumble away?  A print copy can survive all of these things.  Look at how many books in your local library have outlived their authors: some people have books that are centuries old.  Unlike digital media like hard drives, CDs, and floppy disks, which seem to degrade after a decade or so, the printed word lasts for a long time.

And finally, code is speech.

Recall the PGP case: the U.S. government passed restrictions on cryptography export laws, making it illegal for them to sell their software to other countries.  PGP got around this by releasing their source code in book form and physically mailing it.  When 2600 published the source code to DeCSS on their website, it got shut down; had they printed it in the magazine, it would have been virtually impossible to make it go away.

What about publishing keys that allow us to bypass digital rights management restrictions on our hardware, allowing us to have full access to a device that we legally purchased and should own?  Imagine if 2600 published a code snippet that allowed people who drive "smart" cars to disable government monitoring of their whereabouts, or one that allowed John Deere tractor owners to operate their equipment without needing to ask the manufacturer for "permission?"  These are all things that, if posted on blogs or tech websites, governments and large companies would be able to shut down pretty easily.  But when something is printed on a physical page, it doubles as a legal hack that serves to protect us.

Ultimately, the question is not about getting the fastest and easiest access to various technical tips, but ensuring that ideas and tools that powerful entities might not like are able to see the light of day.  If we claim to value concepts like truth, freedom, and expression, then the printed word remains our best chance at survival.