A few years ago, they went to DefCon to release Back Orifice, which they billed as a "security tool" to help admins plug cracks, or alternately as a productivity tool to let users control their PCs remotely. It was a hack, obviously - the fact that it could be bundled as a trojan and run without a user's permission was pretty clearly the prime feature. The press attention they got was mixed, but they never took it too seriously (the official release announcement at DefCon involved throwing raw meat into the audience).

I doubt this is being treated any more seriously. I'm sure the cDc crew honestly believe in democritization through hacktivism, but it's always been a justification rather than a motive cause.

I'm willing to admit that groups like cDc can do good work through hacktivism, but I'd need to see some more concrete examples of what they're doing first. I haven't seen any exploits that actually had a positive impact; the only examples I've seen posted are the typical "GWD 0wnz j00" slogans slapped on hacked websites.