No, it's not RIAA
. And no, they are not kids.
They are people educated enough to break into multiple computer systems and organize a massive attack against major Internet service providers. They are experts in computer security and networking. They call themselves
hackers.
I respect every skill I haven't mastered. Not discussing moral aspects of DoSing (or writing viruses, cracking software, etc.) I claim that those people are much more proficient than most of us (including me) in specific knowledge areas. They are not kids.
Think of Al-Kaeda. Some people hate it, some fear it, others respect it for "kicking the self-proclaimed World Cop's butt". But nobody calls them "airplane kiddies" (which doesn't make them less odious, don't get me wrong).
I insist that the common belief about "kiddies who have nothing to do" is far from reality. Kiddies babble on IRC, they are not capable of taking over military sputniks or controlling the Internet backbones.
...I'm sure IRC will survive without DALnet.
