I know it's just a throwaway comment, but you don't take a course on "learning to paint" to do vandalism.
You don't see courses on "ethical painting" like the person teaching it has to qualify that they're teaching the legal type of painting. You don't hear people talking about "white hack" and "black hat" painters.
I assume you know hacking has a huge illegal component such that it always has to be qualified as good or bad when talking about it.
I see your point, but I don't think the fact that society has created a dichotomy of hackers means that we should ban all knowledge of hacking.
This might be a better analogy for my feelings on the topic. Abortions are determined to be legal or illegal based on the time you have one. This is the dichotomy that we as a society have created. The method to abort a child at 1 month, and 1 month and 1 day will be exactly the same, but the legallity might be the opposite. Does that mean we need to ban all information on how to have a safe abortion? No, it means we need to enfore the laws already on the books for those having unsafe/ illegal abortions.
The fact that knowledge is abused does not mean it should be censored. And on top of that maybe I want to know how to craft a pair of brass knuckles, or how to program a guidance system for a missle just because I'm curious.
You don't see courses on "ethical painting" like the person teaching it has to qualify that they're teaching the legal type of painting. You don't hear people talking about "white hack" and "black hat" painters.
I assume you know hacking has a huge illegal component such that it always has to be qualified as good or bad when talking about it.