Tragic Suicide of Aaron Swartz

[James]

Aaron Swartz was found hanging in his NY apartment. This is terrible and shocking, the loss of one of the great genius talents in America. But I see why he did it, he was facing Federal time for breaching a computer network at MIT.

From a statement released by his family:

Aaron’s death is not simply a personal tragedy. It is the product of a criminal justice system rife with intimidation and prosecutorial overreach. Decisions made by officials in the Massachusetts U.S. Attorney’s office and at MIT contributed to his death. The US Attorney’s office pursued an exceptionally harsh array of charges, carrying potentially over 30 years in prison, to punish an alleged crime that had no victims. Meanwhile, unlike JSTOR, MIT refused to stand up for Aaron and its own community’s most cherished principles.

[Mykhailo]

The news really hit hard when I heard it yesterday. He was a truly heroic figure, but also such a tragic one. Even from the distance of the internet, it was pretty obvious he had enormous difficulties knowing when and how to fight his battles productively, both personal and political. But the guy was so profoundly right in the things he identified as unacceptable and unjust and what we deserve as citizens and people -- that technology should work to break down hierarchies, and especially that access to information is a fundamental human right, and that it is just wrong that our access to it should depend on who we are and how much financial and political resources we have -- and had he lived a full life, he really might have changed the world. So sad.

[JT]

The news really hit hard when I heard it yesterday. He was a truly heroic figure, but also such a tragic one. Even from the distance of the internet, it was pretty obvious he had enormous difficulties knowing when and how to fight his battles productively, both personal and political. But the guy was so profoundly right in the things he identified as unacceptable and unjust and what we deserve as citizens and people -- that technology should work to break down hierarchies, and especially that access to information is a fundamental human right, and that it is just wrong that our access to it should depend on who we are and how much financial and political resources we have -- and had he lived a full life, he really might have changed the world. So sad.

I concur.

[James]

Geeze, You can get less prison time for selling slaves or helping the terrorists win than what he faced for freeing JSTOR articles.

[Michael]

"Aaron's Law" Introduced

[Hayduke]

A real "Aaron's Law" would make information produced with public money a freely available public good, but this is a nice start.

In other news: "I conceal my identity the same way Aaron was indicted for."

For the non-techies, MAC address cloning (which has nothing to do with Apple) is basic low-level geekage and last time I checked it's a standard feature on Cable/DSL modems. Bottom line: if they locked up everyone who's done this the world's data infrastructure would collapse in a matter of hours and there'd be no one left to fix it. Locking up the people who've done it in such a cool way for such an altruistic purpose, well then we're in much rarer air.

[Mykhailo]

A thousand time "yes".

When I was a kid, I thought a lot about what made me different from the other kids. I don’t think I was smarter than them and I certainly wasn’t more talented. And I definitely can’t claim I was a harder worker — I’ve never worked particularly hard, I’ve always just tried doing things I find fun. Instead, what I concluded was that I was more curious — but not because I had been born that way. If you watch little kids, they are intensely curious, always exploring and trying to figure out how things work. The problem is that school drives all that curiosity out. Instead of letting you explore things for yourself, it tells you that you have to read these particular books and answer these particular questions. And if you try to do something else instead, you’ll get in trouble. Very few people’s curiosity can survive that. But, due to some accident, mine did. I kept being curious and just followed my curiosity.

[Mykhailo]

Very long, but very good and even-handed post about the actual legal issues by a bona-fide expert in the specific law that the Swartz case was about.

http://www.volokh.com/2013/01/16/the...on/#more-69788

tl;dr:

Swartz was an exceptionally noble and admirable person but also guilty,

it was reasonable both legally and ethically to prosecute him,

it's hard to say exactly what punishment he faced but it wasn't even a remote possibility that he was going to get a sentence of 35 years in prison but more like a few years at the very upper limit if he pled not guilty and 0-6 months if he pled guilty,

the specific prosecutors here aren't really the problem so much as the whole screwed up system of plea bargains and the federal prosecution system in general,

"Aaron's Law" is not such a great idea, and various fixes to the Comptuter Fraud and Abuse Act are offered that seem to me to be totally sensible and much-needed.

[James]

"Aaron's Law" is not such a great idea, and various fixes to the Comptuter Fraud and Abuse Act are offered that seem to me to be totally sensible and much-needed.

Like how about not making it a felony to violate terms of service, which you have to agree to in full just to have any access at all. It is all a one-sided contract anyway.