Hacker:
1: A person who makes unauthorized intrusions into computer systems. Used inside the computer industry and outside the computer industry. Sometimes spelled “h@XX0r.”
2: A person who displays unusually strong interest, concentration, and persistence in solving difficult or esoteric technical problems. Used primarily in the computer industry. “Bob’s a hacker, he’ll work the problem until it’s solved or until he collapses from fatigue.”
3: A talented specialist in any particularly esoteric or challenging technical area. Used primarily in the computer industry. “You need a good hardware hacker to solve this problem.”
Cracker:
1: A hacker who specializes in creating and distributing methods of defeating anti-piracy measures in software (sometimes called “cRaKz” or “spl0!tz”. In decades past, “cracker” was often used to refer to system intruders (see hacker 1 above), but this has fallen out of common usage.
Phreak:
1: Someone who defeats measures to defeat telephone network security or revenue collection. Phreaking had its heyday in the 70’s and 80’s and went obsolete when improvements in COCOT security and out-of-band signalling rendered home-bult “colored boxes” obsolete in the mid 1990’s.
Saying that “hacker good, cracker bad” is like, so 1990. The only role of Hollywood in this whole thing is that they popularized the negative image in mass culture, and then a few self-identifying hackers tried to counter it with the definition of technical competence. And a few people tried to sell the “white hat” hacker concept, and everybody kind of rolled their eyes and laughed up their sleeves. They’re still trying, it seems. But all meanings meanings existed independently of the hacker PR wars.
All this info is from me as a primary source and my experience around those people and endeavors, past and present. Thus I can’t point you to a web site, so either you will believe me or you will not. Due to the issue being heavily politicized, you have to take whatever you read with a grain of salt.