Hell there was a whole monthly meeting and magazine dedicated to that sort of behavior. Criminal? Yes. Part of hacker culture? Also yes.

Too bad Mr Goldstein lost all credibility (that he may or may not have had) when he started shaming folks for not taking the clot shot.

I mean, if your definition of decent requires you to be a fraud and a conman, then no.

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My father, while he certainly pirated a lot of software back in the 90s, wasn't stealing any phone cards, or doing any embezzlement. Presumably, that makes him not decent with computers.

(You probably can tell the difference, because I doubt you think that the former should be a felony.)

Off the top of my head, Cliff Stoll did some pretty hackerish stuff on the right side of the law.

Many people seem to forget or not know that all along his career he went ripping off fellow nerds and hackers left and right for his personal gain. He spied on them on his BBS, stole their secrets, defrauded them, ridiculed them, even tipped them off to law enforcement when it was beneficial to him. He proudly admitted to doing all of this in german interviews.

Kim and his endeavours are undoubtedly part of hacking history, but he himself was never part of the culture. He couldn't give a rat's ass about the culture if it weren't to build his legend and bedazzle his followers. All he really ever wanted was cold hard cash, Rolexes and cars.

Now come again about Goldstein?

And, much as it may surprise you, large numbers of "computer nerds" did NOT engage in any unlawful activities.

But your mention of "clot shot" certainly clarifies why you would be simping for a low life POS like Dotcom.