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I think common usage is more important than whatever first-generation definations say. Language is something which is flexible and fluid, and it goes where the popular will takes it. Some tiny faction of highly skilled computer users getting all up-in-arms about some label as a misnomer is about as stupid as those British farmers who were complaining about "couch potato" ruining the image of their crop. Trying to force this difference between hackers & crackers on a general population that already has its mind made up on the what the word "hacker" symbolizes (as well as "cracker" as a racial term) is just silly. I think everyone can agree that it's a hopeless cause, and frankly the fact that people get upset over it is just bizzare to me. It's like some kind of strango-world political-correctness in the (educated) cyber-world which I had always considered above such petty BS.
Word usage changes all the time, and those who are so adamant about clinging to antiquated definitions need to get over their little slice of elitism and move on.
JUST MY OPINION!
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