Free Kevin Stickers

1995

Date: 15 February 1995 to 21 January 2000 · Place: Worldwide, via 2600 Magazine and laptop lids · Figures: Kevin Mitnick, hacker · Emmanuel Goldstein (Eric Corley), editor of 2600 · Tsutomu Shimomura, security researcher · Tags: Hacker Culture, Sticker, 2600 01. Held Without Trial The FBI arrests Kevin Mitnick on 15 February 1995 in Raleigh, North Carolina, after a manhunt assisted by Tsutomu Shimomura. Mitnick is held without bail for four and a half years, eight months of it in solitary confinement, on the prosecutorial theory that he could start a nuclear war by whistling into a payphone. Emmanuel Goldstein at 2600 Magazine prints the first FREE KEVIN bumper stickers in 1995. They are distributed free at 2600 meetings on the first Friday of every month at payphones and food courts in dozens of cities. 02. The First Hacker Cause Celebre FREE KEVIN stickers cover laptop lids at every DEF CON from 1996 to 2000. The yellow-and-black livery is unmistakable. The freekevin.com site, the documentary Freedom Downtime (2001), and the New York Times opinion column by John Markoff that started the whole pursuit, become a generational litmus test. Mitnick is released on 21 January 2000. The stickers persist. They are the prototype for every laptop-lid political sticker that follows, from Snowden to Stallman. "Kevin Mitnick is in prison for downloading source code. He hurt nobody. Free Kevin." — 2600 Magazine editorial, Spring 1996 Sources • Jonathan Littman, 'The Fugitive Game: Online with Kevin Mitnick' (Little, Brown, 1996) • 2600 Magazine archive, Spring 1995 through Winter 1999-2000 • Emmanuel Goldstein, 'Freedom Downtime' documentary (2001)