It takes a person like Aaron Swartz to remind you how little you are actually doing to bring forth social, political and economic justice in this increasingly insane and sick world. I’m not exaggerating when I say his life was an inspiration. At 14 years old he helped start the RSS feed system, which so many now use to read content online. He also co-founded Reddit, and its sale to Conde Nast is what afforded him the resources to dedicate his life to the defense of a free and open internet. His most remarkable success in this regard was the creation of the organization Demand Progress, which was instrumental in defeating the internet censorship bill know as SOPA (the Stop Online Piracy Act).
He ran afoul of the law due to his actions in the fall of 2010 when he downloaded millions of academic journal articles from the nonprofit online database JSTOR. While JSTOR could have pursued charges against Aaron for his activities, they decided against it. However, our Federal Government was not so kind. They decided to make an example of Aaron and charged him with multiple felonies. Charges that carried up to 35 years in prison and $1 million in fines. Aaron was found dead in his Brooklyn apartment this past Friday, in an apparent suicide.
If you had asked me about Aaron Swartz three days ago I could have told you none of the above. This is despite the fact that I now spend pretty much all of my time trying to read through news and understand the true nature of the world around me. Even more pathetically, it is despite the fact that a close friend of mine had met Aaron this past summer and was trying to coordinate a time for us all to meet. Sadly, we never connected.
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5 comments:
Aaron Swartz was a scumbag criominal and was about to be sent to prision for 30 years.
This P.O.S. broke into MIT and installed a laptop computer onto one of MITs computer switches. The laptop was recording everything going in and out of the switch.
Aaron got caught red handed trying to retrieve the data.
He should not have killed himself as I would much rather he spend the next 30 years behind bars for what he was trying to do.
I can't speak to the hacking charges - only the Feds wanted prosecution, but he was a hacker and he was an ass.
Demand Progress is a digital click away from OWS.
Some folks who run aground and get caught feel the guilt and act accordingly. I don't claim to know what this genius did, and I mean that in a complimentary tone, but if he was that intelligent, he was probably aware that he had been caught doing something that could put him in a box for 30 years. Me, given that option, I would not be able to do the time.
What he did was download so many articles from the legal website JSTOR that it locked them (and/or MIT) up for days. His goal was not malicious. It was to make publicly accessible documents more publicly accessible, beyond the student/school experience.
JSTOR did not press charges and even defended Swartz. Last week, JSTOR decided to make tons of the archives more publicly available. MIT did nothing to speak up for Swartz.
This happened two years ago. The Fed prosecutor in Massachusetts, Carmen Ortiz, went after Swartz like he was a serial killer, boosting his charges up to 13 felonies that would have added up to 50 years in jail.
A punishment proportionate to the crime? I think not.
Your freedom here is largely due to Swartz's efforts to keep the government from interfering with the Internet.
Think about it if this was your son. Think about how a thin guy of 26 would fare for 50 years in prison.
What a waste, but I'm so glad Ortiz got her man, and we can all walk the streets easier because of her - NOT!
4:23 PM 5:38 PM
You two don't have a clue what you are talking about. And you certainly are not anywhere neat this guys level.
Is that a feeble attempt to knock him down a little bit so you can feel elevated? Ha. Would never work.
Anybody can be labeled a criminal. Especially when you do the right thing and the powers that be don't like it.
He was actually doing things that benefited everyone. And he wasn't doing it for the money.
I know he is way out of your league and that's why you can't understand it.
Put your head back down and go back to sleep. Someone with some substance has just passed away. Not anything you would know or care about.
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