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B&N Pulls Linux Format Magazine Over Feature On 'Hacking'
New accepted submitter super_rancid writes that issue 154 of the "UK-based Linux Format magazine was pulled from Barnes and Noble bookstores in the U.S. after featuring an article called 'Learn to Hack'. They used 'hack' in the populist security sense, rather than the traditional sense, and the feature — which they put online — was used to illustrate how poor your server's security is likely to be by breaking into it."
That's because Linux is an OS used predominately by criminals to hack machines. I appluad Barnes and Noble for this responsible reaction.
Odds are that Linux Format magazine is about to see an increase in circulation.
Say what?
I used to pick up my copies of 2600 at a local B&N years ago...
Sad.
"You worthless post!"
-Shakespeare, 2 Gentlemen of Verona, 1. 1. 147
With a title like "Learn to Hack" you're expecting instructions about chopping up things like bodies, not about poor server security.
They'll happily stock martial arts magazines, full of special features about new and exciting ways to hurt people.
Which US Law that is violating our first Amendment rights that would require B & N to take it down...
Perhaps B & N is worried about something.
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
What's wrong with hacking? Just because one or two people may use hammer to hurt others, doesn't mean all shops should be banned from selling them.
Wait, a company has a virtual monopoly on brick and mortar book stores and suddenly doesn't feel any pressure to carry a product like this, since no one can go down the street and get it from a competitor? Get out of town....
That is really odd, as my local B&N was still carrying 2600 last time I was in, and there are similar articles in every issue.
Realities just a bunch of bits.
Could it be that the buyout of B&N by Microsoft has produced the first victim?
Or just a "unfortunate coincidence" that the magazine censured over a word is a Linux magazine?
Remember what happened last time, Redcoat.
No it's not. If a government agency had tried to force them to take it down, that would have been a case of infringement. But as a private entity, B&N can decide what to carry in their product line.
2600, the Hacker Quarterly, which it has carried for at least a decade?
In an age where brick and mortar bookstores are no longer the most economic method to deliver printed matter, and where the needs and desires of consumers can be far more fully met online, needlessly exposing yourself to ridicule and consumer anger is not a good business strategy.
Slashdot: Playing Favorites Since 1997
I used to go to Barnes and Noble to buy 2600 Magazine because it was the only place in town that carried it. This was in the Midwestern US in the mid-1990s. I guess times have changed (OK I know times have changed).
B&N simply cares about not allowing FUD to be sold in its stores! The banned article is obviously M$ sponsored FUD because it says that Linux boxes can be hacked, which all of us Slashdot users know is physically impossible because of the OSRGF (Open Source Reality Generation Field). I mean it's simple physics: somebody could read the Open Source code and find bugs. Multiple universes exist where all bugs are found. Therefore, all bugs are found, fixed, and patched automatically, making it impossible to hack Linux. Watch some more Star Trek and learn your physics people!
I applaud B&N for taking a stand against the spread of M$ sponsored FUD like this.
AntiFA: An abbreviation for Anti First Amendment.
They missed 2600. The b&st@rds.
When they pull that, I have -1 reasons to go to B&N. And since they bought my data from Borders and spammed me immediately, I've been a little peeved at them. Now I can explain to the wife how buying books at Amazon isn't hurting the local seller. The local seller is well capable of hurting itself.
deleting the extra space after periods so i can stay relevant, yeah.
Yes. Really. I wouldn't want them if they were free. Waste of paper which I would have to haul off, not backlit, can't copy/paste or link to content, etc.
I'm certainly old enough to miss dead tree media. I don't, though I use junk snail mail to line the bottom of my bird cages.
"This post is an artistic work of fiction and falsehood. Only a fool would take anything posted here as fact."
what a load of BS!
Just wait until they see the June issue... Headline: "Beat the CIA"
So how many different definitions of the word 'hacker' is there now, 1337? Seriously though, I'm sick and tired of all the mystery and ignorance surrounding the subject.
You just lost all of my future business. Linux Format is my favorite magazine, and I am disgusted that I ever bough anything from Barnes & Noble after they did something like this. Goodbye B&N, hello Amazon!
I suggest Linux Format Magazine picks up the pace. They should feature a "hacking" article EVERY ISSUE.
In fact, I'm thinking about going into publishing a HACKING magazine right now. With Blackjack and Hookers....
2600 magazine rules that niche, but maybe with something like "HACKING" right on the cover, they'd give me lots of free publicity by pulling it.
BTW: How is it that they carry MAKE magazine? Technically, that's hacking as well...
If telephones are outlawed, then only outlaws will have telephones.
less dangerous reading material that has hurt no one.
Think it is actually because the cover says "Beat the CIA" rather than learn to hack... well at least it does in the UK!
the tag line is "keep everyone out with our ultimate privacy guide"... I imagine thats the reason why, not a little tutorial. Governments don't like being reminded...
Stop being stupid.
I cut my teeth on articles about "hacking". I've used "hacking" tools going back to the one that got Dan Farmer fired, and before. My interest in security was sparked by downloading an exploit for the Solaris eject command. Download, compile, omg! Root prompt!
The catch? I did all those things on boxes I was paid to secure. I've never broken into anyone's systems but my own, and I have legitimate rights to do that. Information is information. It's not "good" or "bad". I have a bookshelf full of books, mostly bought in your stores, that could teach you how to "hack" or how to secure systems and networks. Guess what I've been paid to do for going on 20 years?
From the 2600 lawsuit? a few years ago B&N was refusing to carry them in the stores, and 2600 sued them, or at least threatened to and they put them back.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
[censored]
I thought China was our majority debtor.
They sell 2600, I know because I buy it there.
...but I am going to get one now.
Unacceptable... a bookseller doesn't have the right to assert opinion in this manor.
They used 'hack' in the populist security sense
WTF is that?
To 99% of the world, a hacker is someone who steals your password, your money, puts kiddie porn on your computer and publishes all your email.
Like it or not, folks doing legitimate security assessments or building custom gadgets, etc. would do well to come up with term other than "Hacker".
When Fascism comes to America, it will call itself Anti-Fascism, and tell you to give up your guns.
If, in the 70's they pulled Esquire Magazine for carrying the article "Secrets of the Little Blue Box", an article that described phone phreaking.
This inspired Steve Jobs to convince friend Woz to design and build Blue boxes, which eventually lead to the founding of Apple... now the biggest company in the world...
Apple started from hacker/phreaker roots, and inspired by an article published in a magazine. Just imagine the damage they've done to the future by pulling this Magazine.
If telephones are outlawed, then only outlaws will have telephones.
You can't buy Linux Format because of an article about hacking (which is legal), but you can buy your copy of High Times (full of articles about something illegal under federal law)...
if (it != oneThing) it = another;
Or did you think that Mel Gibson film was a documentary?
I used to write for them. Wonderful folks and a great magazine.
- hacker == good guy; hobbyist; enginner or technician
- cracker == bad guy; thief; like a safecracker
We need to teach the reporters and press the difference between these two words, so they start using "crack" or "cracker" for someone up to no good rather than demeaning us enginners, technicians, and hobbyists.
My AC stalker: " I personally agree with your posts most of the time, but that won't keep me from modding you troll"
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/d2600-magazine-2600-magazine/1108150347?ean=2940013699236
Best Slashdot Co
That's okay, I'll just head down the street to buy a copy from .... Oh, wait .... I know! I'll just go online and order it off .... Oh, shoot. Hmm, where did all the competition go? Oh well, I guess I'll just read whatever B&N or Amazon recommend for me..... Aaah, Excel For Dummies. Excellent.
----
Not to be confused with Col.
Scarne on Cards
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/scarne-on-cards-john-scarn/1104279175?ean=9780451167651
Teaches you how to cheat at card games.
Originally produced for the US Army during WW2, it was designed to reveal methods of cheating so a soldier could tell when he was being cheated, just like the Linux Format article.
Understanding bad people is not the same as being a bad person; ignorance is neither power nor protection.
"I believe in Karma. That means I can do bad things to people all day long and I assume they deserve it." : Dogbert
Which US Law that is violating our first Amendment rights that would require B & N to take it down... Perhaps B & N is worried about something.
Though your grammar and sentence structure make it difficult be certain, it appears that you seem to think that the First Ammendment applies here. If so, you are very much mistaken. Stupid even. B&N can choose to sell, or not sell, anything they want
With important new partnership, Microsoft open a new front on malware distributors, by curbing proliferation of the fundamental skills needed to write software! Windows has never been more secure!
Where does everybody get the sense that back in the day we didn't use the word for both of those things?
In 1988, a hack was used to describe a clever tweak of something to do something new, social engineering, and security intrusions. And, as far as I know, had been used in those ways for some time.
I've simply never gotten this whole "it's crack not hack" stuff, because it feels like we're changing after the fact how the word was actually used in practice. But when I was in highschool in the mid 80s, hacker was the only word we used -- 'cracker' came later.
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
No, the major US creditor is internal US debt. China owns 7% of the total US debt, which is 30% of the foreign debt.
---
ECHELON is a government program to find words like bomb, jihad, plutonium, assassinate, and anarchy.
If so, does that mean they are responsible for the content of the other 499 magazines + 20000 books in their store?
By the way, did any store ban The New Republic when they published a possibly pedophilic article 17 years ago? Or the National Review when they continued to publish what may be seen as racist articles into this decade? I don't know if they did, just wondering.
I'm not a lawyer, but I play one on the Internet. Blog
This sounds like it is just a publicity stunt. B&N carries all kinds of magazines on "Hacking," specifically 2600 Magazine. For what it's worth, my local B&N stores carry very few copies of Linux Format magazine every month and usually sell out mid-month. Also, this is still on the shelf as of today, not "pulled."
Quiet! B&N might catch on and stop selling 2600 as well!
Lizzie Borden to her Pa: "Papa, can I play outside?" Pa: "Go axe your mother."
They don't care if you hurt people, or even if you do it publicly.... But hacking into my server could cause me to LOSE MONEY, and B&N just won't stand for that.
Alternatively, the solution is simple: Let's all go visit Barnes and noble today and ask them for that particular issue. When they see how much MONEY they could be making by selling it, they may change their tune.
Of course the have the right. It's their shop.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
Is your son obsessed with "Lunix"? BSD, Lunix, Debian and Mandrake are all versions of an illegal hacker operation system, invented by a Soviet computer hacker named Linyos Torovoltos, before the Russians lost the Cold War. It is based on a program called "xenix", which was written by Microsoft for the US government. These programs are used by hackers to break into other people's computer systems to steal credit card numbers. They may also be used to break into people's stereos to steal their music, using the "mp3" program. Torovoltos is a notorious hacker, responsible for writing many hacker programs, such as "telnet", which is used by hackers to connect to machines on the internet without using a telephone. Your son may try to install "lunix" on your hard drive. If he is careful, you may not notice its presence, however, lunix is a capricious beast, and if handled incorrectly, your son may damage your computer, and even break it completely by deleting Windows, at which point you will have to have your computer repaired by a professional. If you see the word "LILO" during your windows startup (just after you turn the machine on), your son has installed lunix. In order to get rid of it, you will have to send your computer back to the manufacturer, and have them fit a new hard drive. Lunix is extremely dangerous software, and cannot be removed without destroying part of your hard disk surface.
The shouldn't assert it in a castle, estate or roundhouse either...
Remember what happened last time, Redcoat.
Last time the Americans and the British fought, the British occupied Washington, D.C. and burned the White House to the ground. It turns out it's much easier to just blockade American ports and burn cities, if you aren't trying to chase an insurgent army across the continental United States.
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/best-of-2600-emmanuel-goldstein/1102658944?ean=9780470294192
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/2600-magazine-2600-magazine/1104039139?ean=2940014186568
Yet, B&N in the US is one of the few remaining places where I can still buy 2600 which tends to cover both hacking and cracking. You know... I always wondered why all the censorship movies and book seem to happen in Europe... V for Vendetta, 1984, etc...
Was this before or after Microsoft signed a multi-billion dollar deal with B&N?
The shouldn't assert it in a castle, estate or roundhouse either...
Would You? Could You? In a Car?
There is no right to feel safe thru security vaudeville at the expense of everyone's freedom, privacy and tax money.
Maybe someone can post a link to a B&N feedback page of some sort, and then everyone here on /. can write B&N a short note about this action of theirs.
I've always found 2600 and blacklisted (back in the day) at B&N. This is just bizarre.
As you can get a linux format subscription for the Nook.
I live in the UK and am subscribed. I received it, back in February. It's about penetration testing, not cr/hacking, but the title is sensationalised. The latest issue says 'beat the CIA' and is about security and encryption
History fail.
That wasn't the last time the U.S. and the British Empire fought.
MCSE? No, sir...I don't do Windows. Yes, I am an idealist. What's your point?
Abandoning the word is only the first step. We must follow through: deny the word to everyone else. Salt the hacker earth, poison the hacker well, and burn the hacker buildings. If I can't have you, no one can.
Join me in redefining "hacker" to mean any bad person, and "hacking" to mean any undesirable activty, with no technical connotations.
That luddite political candidate you don't like? He's too hacker for you. Hitler and Stalin? Those were real hackers, titanic figures from World Hack II.
As copyright owner of this comment, I authorize everyone to defeat any technological measure which limits access to it.
There are some good points in the article, but the article from issue 154 is out of date. It refers to the proprietary tool, Nessus, which has been surpassed by OpenVAS. OpenVAS does not even get a mention, despite being useful, GPL software.
Beta is broken and the link to classic doesn't work. Stop wasting our time or there won't be anybody left here.
mmm it is widely known that anyone with some basic knowledge about socket programming,assembly and generally how operating systems works , can do pretty much ANYTHING he can imagine with a computer system in the world !! everything is already available in alot of formats,papers/pdfs etc..why would they try to censor this stuff now? maybe it is just some commercial debates !!
What's a bookstore?
The article shows you how to use nmap, metasploit, and some password brute-forcing tools, OH NOES HIDE TEH UBER-L33T CYBER WEAPONS!
"When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
One of the most distinctive features of Linux Format was a DVD edition sold around the turn of the millennium that saved modem-connected users from having to download the latest packages. It was cool.
If hacking is outlawed, only outlaws will hack.
Hacking Articles don't hack, people hack.
The word "hacker" has suffered the same fate as the word "gay". Just as you can no longer say you are 'happy' by using the 'g' word (least you admit you are something else), one can no longer use the word hacker to mean a computer wiz without getting 'cuffed'. GD 5th estate!
Since the Barnes & Noble Nook deal with the evil overlords of Redmond, it is obvious that the vile rulers will not want anyone learning that Linux even exists. Like Nokia, Barnes & Noble is now just Microsoft's bitch.
* Carthago Delenda Est *
Linux Format is now up to issue 158, and that has the cover banner "Beat the CIA"!
Will that even be allowed into the US, let alone get banned by B&N?
That Was Close! As any good dead tree-purveying businessman will tell you, print is the only way to disseminate information. Now that they've pulled the issue, the dangerous information is effectively lost forever and humanity saved.
Ask me about my sig!
B&N, like most meatspace book and magazine retailers is on the way out. The Nook is really their only profitable division. What with anything that can be read going digital only pretty quickly, we will all be downloading Linux Format to our choice of e-readers. The problem then is being tracked.
Job Interview:
Interviewer: "Oh, we see here you read Linux Format magazines as a monthly subscription on your E-Reader 9000. Don't you know they feature "hacking" articles? How can we trust you to administer our servers now that we know you participate in such dreadful reading?"
You: "I read it to keep up with Linux in general, not hacking. Hacking has become a term with an unfortunate alter-meaning."
Interviewer: "No matter. We cannot hire you, and will be reporting your reading habits to the major inusrance carriers as well as Evil Shady Corp. because we feel you lead a lifestyle that is not in your best interest."
You: "You have to be joking, right?"
Interviewer: "I'm afraid not, sir. This concludes our interview. Have a pleasant day."
When things go completely digital and you have no choice to purchase your reading interests from one of the walled gardens that sells ebooks and other literature, I cannot help but feel that every human beings' habits will be sifted for nefarious purposes such as judging you based on what you read, assigning a level of risk, trust, etc., to the inumerable profile being bult up for all of us. I'm still waiting for the giant one profile that will inevitably come about -- a massive ginormabyte index of every human being on the planet run by a massive, shady entity that basically decides on the futures of all of us, and one that actual governments fear.
Weird. I'm pretty sure I've bought many copies of 2600 at B&N.
If its their manor, I guess they would. If its your manor -- well, you're the baron, and would get to decide.
(I know you meant manner -- but it's funny your way)
Just another "Cubible(sic) Joe" 2 17 3061
Perhaps their own web servers or internal corporate security failed some of the article's tests.
Merriam-Webster:
First known use of PREDOMINATELY: 1594
Even if its used predominantly in America, it's a good bet predominately didn't originate here.
"To predominate" is a verb, "predominant" is an adjective. At some point in time, someone built an adjective off of the verb.
My favorite bit of vestigial English preserved in the colonies -- especially in the midwest -- is "gotten."
And it's not a colloquialism; it's used in formal American English.
"What have you gotten?" (obtained) vs. "What have you got?" (possession)
(There's actually another Americanism in a sentence above. We typically say "off of" while the British say simply "off.")
A preposition is a terrible thing to end a sentence with.
We don't more of them. The title is wrong "Learn to Hack" should be "Becoming a scriptkiddie for dummies".
They should've written something along the lines of "using something other than the way in which was first intended", instead of that narrow and mischief sounding definition.
Servers were not intended to be available for access to you, if you circumvected that security, then you "hacked" the system.
"Science can amuse and fascinate us all, but it is engineering that changes the world. " - Asimov.
I'll just run down to Borders and grab a copy. Oh, uh.... wait a minute.
You mean the war where the USA lost to the British Empire, right?
Just like Walmart had the right to remove Marilyn Manson's book "Long hard road out of hell", before everyone stopped shopping there and they went out of business.
This seems relevant to me even if it dates from the dawn of computer time:
http://www.adequacy.org/stories/2001.12.2.42056.2147.html
I am surprised it hasn't been linked to yet.
Patent disputes magially 'settled' just prior to invalidating Microsoft's bogus patents. Abandoning Android in favor of yet-to-be-developed Microsoft's software (hello, Nokia!). Now pulling off Linux-related magazines. It seems that Micro$oft's $300M "investment" into B&N starts paying off immediately.
in my manor any sign of a bookstore having an opinion shows they have no manners!
They can pull books with red covers if they want as that is the color of socialism. Seriously tho, they aren't the government and can pull whatever they feel violates their 'morals' or today's 'mood'.
Doing stupid things may not be good for business, but somehow i don't think yanking one edition of a niche market magazine is going to make a hell of a lot of a difference.
---- Booth was a patriot ----
I was there, and no, they were totally separate things and were not both referred to by the same term.
If you can only reference the 80's, you really aren't qualified to comment on 'back in the day'.
---- Booth was a patriot ----
They was trying to avoid mistakes by using open source design, now exactly why did the rack have to be 1.75 feet wide. What is wrong with 50cm?
that their actions promote the opposite behavior they hoped to achieve? If they had left the magazine on the shelves, I would not have just downloaded and read the article.
B&N has carried 2600 for years, and made a point of responding to complaints that employees were supposedly hiding the magazine behind others. As a bookstore they are in the habit of selling books (and magazines), not pulling sellable items off the shelf because of an alleged complaint.
On the other hand, I'm glad the UK publisher of Linux Format found a novel new way to freely advertise their material.
Here's what it says on the front:
Learn to Hack!
Attack Servers, Crack Passwords, Exploit services, Beat Encryption, Everything you need to be evil.
There's an asterisk after "evil", and it reads
The skills you learn in LXF Dojo are for self defense only, don't break the law.
I have subscribed to Linux Format (LXF) from Issue 1. It is a great mag, the best for Linux, and am a regular on their forums.
This Issue No 154 was in January (slow news) and at the time I commented that their cover was unwise:-
http://www.linuxformat.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=14483&highlight=
I don't think it is just the word "Hack" on the cover, it also exhorts you to "Be evil". So claims that "Hack" is not "Crack", and that B&N, FBI, [whoever] don't understand the difference, are on poor ground because LXF154's cover actually says that this is hacking to be evil. They are tongue in cheek, of course, but a casual outsider can only be expected to see it as what it says it is.
The LXF front cover words are (I have it in front of me now) :-
Learn to
HACK [very large letters, >2" high, biggest thing on the cover]
Attack Servers >> Crack Passwords >> Exploit Services
Beat Encription >> Everything you need to be evil
http://www.linuxformat.com/files/lxf_covers/154-big.jpg
LXF can only blame themselves for not being more discrete.
Don't they stock CISSP,CEH, TCP/IP, and network security manuals ? lol what a bunch of morons !
What the hell are you babbling about?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_of_1812#Historians.27_views
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_of_1812#Long-term_consequences
Linux Format should be pulled from all vendors, ESP. those in Asia, Africa, Australia, Antarctica, the Americas, and Europe.
Who thinks paying 16.99USD for glossy dead trees for a ~100p magazine is particularly brilliant?
If Linux Format isn't hell-bent on deforestation or just serving the über-elite hacker community, perhaps some sort of standards-based digital "electrified bibliographic ocular observation contraption" (eBooc) could be invented. Possibly, this could use "magic portal word" that would let the reader go right from the page they were reading. to some reference or related work.