In 1984, Newsweek journalist Steven Levy published the first book ever written about hackers: Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution. In it, he summarized hacker values as six principles of the "hacker ethic," and to this day these principles are still seen as the best statement on the subject.

Access to computers, and anything that might teach you something about the way the world works, should be unlimited and total. Always yield to the Hands-On Imperative!

All information should be free.

Mistrust authority; promote decentralization.

Hackers should be judged by their hacking, not bogus criteria such as degrees, age, race, or position.

You can create art and beauty on a computer.

Computers can change your life for the better.

Based on these six principles of the "hacker ethic," the core values of hackers can be summed up as: sharing, openness, democracy, free use of computers, and progress.