H2K is short for HOPE 2000, which stands for Hackers On Planet Earth, 2000. HOPE is a series of hacker conferences in New York City started by the good folks at 2600 Magazine. The conferences allow for technical panels, entertaining talks, hacker advocacy, and plenty of geek socializing. H2K was held in July 2000 at the Hotel Pennsylvania, located midtown Manhattan right across the street from Penn Station.
At the time, the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) was on everyone's mind, mostly because 2600 Magazine was being sued by the MPAA and that their court proceeding would immediately follow H2K. Keynote speaker and Dead Kennedys frontman Jello Biafra gave his opinion on music sharing and the MPAA, and several panel discussions revolved around Napster, P2P file sharing, MP3 audio, and the DMCA.
The day after H2K ended, many of the conference participants attended a peaceful anti-DMCA protest in front of the courthouse.