No more or less liberally used by hackers than the rest of the population uses "hacker" liberally to mean someone who does anything technology related that they don't understand.
You think so? I feel like most non-techie people use hacker to mean someone who breaks into your computer and puts viruses on it...
Agreed. I mean liberal use of the term hacker to mean using computers for things they don't understand, so they _must_ be illegal or causing someone harm. Liberal use of the term in inappropriate contexts rather than liberal definition of the term.