In the 1970s, the publishing partner of Al Bell, Yippie guru Abbie Hoffman, amended the title of The Youth International Party Line newsletter to TAP, or Technical Assistance Program. The premise behind the newsletter was that phreaking did not hurt anyone because telephone calls emanated from an unlimited reservoir. At the time, hackers voraciously absorbed the rather technical articles found in TAP—which encompassed such “hot” topics as explosives formulas, electronic sabotage blueprints, credit card fraud, and so on. Peculiar forms of Computer Underground writing were started in this newsletter, such as spelling the word “freak” as “phreak,” substituting “z” for “s,” and substituting “0” (zero) for “O” (the letter). These trends within the hacker community continue. The last editor of TAP was phreaker Cheshire Catalyst.
See Also: Cheshire Catalyst and TAP; Phreaking; TAP.
Schell, B.H., Dodge, J.L., with S.S. Moutsatsos. The Hacking of America: Who’s Doing It, Why, and How. Westport, CT: Quorum Books, 2002.
