This letter is not meant for publication, although you can publish it if you wish. It is meant specifically for you, the editor, not the public.
Though I like your paper very much, I felt unhappy when I saw your paper of March 10, 2006, for you misused the wonderful word "hacker" in the report "Top hacker helps firms guard against those like him" in Page 7.
I am not a hacker, but I am trying to become one like Linus Torvalds.(This letter itself can prove that.) That is to say, I enjoy computer programming, writing clever programs and distributing open source softwares. I am not a cracker like Kevin Mitnick and won't to be; I don't make a practice of breaking computer security.
There's nothing shameful about the hacking I do. But when I tell people I want to be a hacker, people think I'm trying to admit something naughty — because newspapers such as yours misuse the word "hacker", giving the impression that it means "security breaker" and nothing else. You are giving hackers a bad name.
The saddest thing is that this problem is perpetuated deliberately. You may know the difference between "hacker" and "security breaker". However, you insist on using "hacker" disparagingly. I feel disappointed about you. So I advise that you should change it when your reporters try to misuse this word and you should cut it when your reporters try to explain these wrong usages.
Of course, you have a reason. You may say that readers have become used to your insulting usage of "hacker", so that you cannot change it now. Well, you can't undo past mistakes today; but that is no excuse to repeat them tomorrow.
If I were what you call a "hacker", at this point I would threaten to crack your computer and crash it. But what I wanna be is a hacker, not a cracker. I don't do that kind of thing! I have enough computers to work with both at home and at school; I don't need yours. Besides, it's not my way to respond to insults with violence. My response is this letter.
You owe hackers an apology; but more than that, you owe us ordinary respect.
Regards!