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Michael Francis Mcelroy / Zuma Press
Aaron Swartz, a noted Internet freedom ''hacktivist,'' died Friday at his apartment. He was 26. He was due to begin a federal trial next month on charges he downloaded millions of academic papers and meant to distribute them for free.
In the 24 hours since Aaron Swartz, a prodigy programmer turned Internet folk hero, hanged himself in his New York apartment, his family and a close friend and mentor have not only expressed devastation – they have been angry.
“Aaron's death is not simply a personal tragedy,” his family wrote in a statement. “It is the product of a criminal justice system rife with intimidation and prosecutorial overreach.”
Swartz, who helped to create RSS at age 14, was indicted in 2011 on charges alleging he improperly downloaded more than four million articles from JSTOR, an online system for archiving academic journals. Swartz argued for transparency -- JSTOR costs more than $50,000 for an annual university subscription -- but court records show that the federal government believed he had, among other felonies, committed wire fraud and computer fraud and unlawfully obtained information from a protected computer.
JSTOR ultimately backed Swartz. But his family’s statement was unflinchingly critical of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the Cambridge, Mass., university where Swartz had allegedly registered a ghost computer to download the records:
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.
JSTOR paid tribute to Swartz in a statement on its front page, saying it regretted being drawn into the case because the organization's "mission is to foster widespread access to the world’s body of scholarly knowledge."
"At the same time, as one of the largest archives of scholarly literature in the world, we must be careful stewards of the information entrusted to us by the owners and creators of that content," the statement said. "To that end, Aaron returned the data he had in his possession and JSTOR settled any civil claims we might have had against him in June 2011."
Swartz’s family described him as entirely committed to social justice. He helped to defeat an Internet censorship bill and “he used his prodigious skills as a programmer and technologist not to enrich himself but to make the Internet and the world a fairer, better place.”
Swartz, 26, hanged himself in his New York apartment on Friday, his family confirmed.
Lawrence Lessig, a Harvard Law School professor who described himself as a mentor and close friend to Swartz, took to Tumblr to express his own raw emotions. He wrote that Swartz's actions may not have been ethical, but the government's response was overly aggressive:
From the beginning, the government worked as hard as it could to characterize what Aaron did in the most extreme and absurd way. The “property” Aaron had “stolen,” we were told, was worth “millions of dollars” — with the hint, and then the suggestion, that his aim must have been to profit from his crime. But anyone who says that there is money to be made in a stash of ACADEMIC ARTICLES is either an idiot or a liar. It was clear what this was not, yet our government continued to push as if it had caught the 9/11 terrorists red-handed.
A spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney's Office told Reuters that officials wanted to respect the family's privacy and did "not feel it is appropriate to comment on the case at this time." Reuters and The Associated Press reported that they could not reach MIT for comment.
Lessig described Swartz as brilliant, funny, “a soul, a conscience, the source of a question I have asked myself a million times: What would Aaron think?”
He concluded his piece: “We need to get beyond the ‘I’m right so I’m right to nuke you’ ethics that dominates our time. That begins with one word: Shame.”
Related: NYT: Aaron Swartz, precocious programmer and Internet activist, dies at 26
Leave a Comment:
I see JSTOR is so sorry he's dead on there web site, Is this a cover our ass or they really sorry?
Gary Speed, Wales football manager. "Suicide" by hanging.
Flight engineer Remigiusze Musu, the key witness against Russian investigators of the 2010 plane crash that killed Poland's upper echelon. "Suicide" by hanging.
Mark Madoff, son of Bernie Madoff (token fall guy for the global financial crisis), who provoked the wrong people with these words: "You said my father would be out of prison within a year. Get him out of prison now, or I'm going to the news media." "Suicide" by hanging.
Bullied by our judicial system ? I can believe that.
I was put in jail for 90 days for a crime I did not commit. I was 100% law and order until that happened. I was over 40, and never stolen a thing in my life, and never harmed a soul, and had no criminal, drug or alcohol history and had never been arrested. All it took was a drunk and drug fueled rage by a girlfriend who worked in the medical industry, and was a veteran to harm herself, and blame me because I wanted to leave her. All I did was flush her drugs down the toilet and left.
The kid did not deserve to die, but let's not forget that he was a criminal and he tool his own life because he could not deal with the consequences. And oh, by the way, he was also suffering from clinical depression and that had a lot to do with this suicide as well. I am sorry the kid is dead, but the parents are wrong to be attacking MIT and the Justice Department. This kid was a hacker who got caught. He stole copyrighted material from a secure computer system; this is a crime. JSTOR has to pay royalties for the rights to provide access to the academic articles and publications they have on their site. They do not get the material for free so they have every right to charge a fee for people to access it. They also spent a good deal of money developing their site and continue to spend money to maintain it and to index all of those documents. While the sentence the Justice Department was pursuing may seem extreme, keep in mind, this was a going in position and not the likely outcome. Often times they threaten long sentences as a way to get criminals to agree to plea bargains with reasonable sentences. What it comes down to is that Swartz was a criminal hacker who got caught and due to his inability to deal with the consequences of his actions as well as his own mental issue in having clinical depression resulted in him committing suicide. To blame MIT or the Justice Department is wrong. The fault lies with Swartz and those close to him who did make sure that he got the help he needed to deal with his clinical depression and the legal difficulties he was going through.
So who has gone to jail for the housing fraud? Anybody from Lehman AIG Goldman?
.....
Yeah - i thought so.
I think we all would like to see our fu...ng useless government go after all the bank executives that robbed the taxpayers for TRILLIONS and got away with it, where is the justice here?
tontosh-2444879, Actually Clinton forced banks to loan out the money. He threatened to levy huge multi billion dollar fines, and kick them out of FDIC status which would both completely ruin a lending institution.
The banks lost their ass too. I lost my home too, but I do know whose fault it really was.
oh please. you cant blame anyone for suicide except the person who killed themself. there are millions worse off than he was and they are still living their lives. this guy just couldnt handle the pressure. his mother probably smothered him his entire life.
Rockmebritney: I agree. There are any number of reasons that a person will kill themselves because they can't deal with something in their lives, but there are many, many more who DEAL WITH IT. They find a way to assess their situations and move on. There are always going to be those who cannot handle stressful situations but by no means should we spread the blame and try to minimize the fact that it ultimately comes down to the individual who makes the decision to end it.
This is also why I was turned off, if you will, by the whole hoopla over the nurse in the U.K. committing suicide. She didn't do anything wrong; she merely transferred a prank call to another nurse (who then spilled HER guts--and that nurse didn't kill herself over the incident!), and yet everyone was villifying the DJs for their "prank-turned-deadly"... the reality is that the nurse made her own decision rather than seeking mental health help (and being a nurse, she knew where to find it!). Nobody else committed suicide in the case. Stupid prank? Sure. Suicide-worthy? No. Was it the DJs' fault? Heck, no.
We're all about making victims in today's society when we should put the focus on the individual who commits the crime/incident first. James Holmes, Jason Loughner, Adam Lanza... we're trying to spread the blame to everything from the parents to the psychiatrists to the media to video games to guns... but the REAL fault in their horrific shooting sprees lies first and foremost with THEM and THEIR personal failings.
Let's go back to some personal accountability in this country, for crying out loud! Laying blame gets us nowhere.
"Explain it to me. Heavy metal bands on trial because kids commit suicide, what is that about? Judas Priest on trial because my kid bought the records, and he listened to the lyrics, and he go into Satan... ALLALALALALALLALA! Well that's great. That sets a legal precedent. Does that mean I can sue Dan Fogelberg for making me into a p-*-y in the mid '70s, is that possible, HUH?" - Denis Leary
@ JS in SD i'll agree w/ you 100% the day the justice dept. sends the perpetrators of the housing scandal & the bankers that were too big to fail to jail .... the crime that aaron committed was victimless & had the gov. coming down hard on him .... the a...holes that stole our money for their gains got off without even a slap on the wrist .... this is the injustice that aaron was fighting against ..... so it just goes to show that if you don't have money to line the gov. pockets you will be harrased ...
As a free market advocate, I can say this definitively: Intellectual Property (IP) is not property. It's a form of protectionism via the state's intervention into the markets in order limit competition. We have all been brainwashed to believe markets can't function or that people won't invent stuff if not for IP...it's nonsense. Trademarks are fine, and aren't what people like me refer to as IP (we differentiate between fraud with trademarks and being civilly disobedient about patent and copyright laws - which are bad laws). But patents and copyrights are hurting consumers and the economy overall by existing...they have a cascading effect that drive up prices, lower quality of goods and services, and limit the accountability of producers. The damage done slows employment from rising at free market levels and limits competition severely. What MIT was doing drives up the cost of education, plain and simple.
The deceased was not a "criminal", because he was breaking an unjust law. He was a hero...a man practicing civil disobedience ala Henry David Thoerau (the man who MLKjr got the idea from, and a man who predated Gandhi). Yes, the government is partly at fault...not just for overzealous prosecution, but for having these anti-free market and anti-consumer IP laws to begin with. IP has to end or consumers will contine to be exploited, jobs will never be created that could be, and people will keep being jailed for nonsense "crimes" that have no victims...as if the Drug War isn't doing enough of that already.
And remember, this is not some anti-property leftist rant. Quite the opposite. IP is not property...and the sooner we cleanse ourselves of the propaganda lie that it is, the better we will be as a society.
ProIndividual-3906907
100% correct.
Suddenly I am seeing you with new eyes.
Actually, if you go read the Huffpost article, you'll see that JSTOR released all of those documents, free to the public, this month. Moreover, Aaron paid for the documents he copied as soon as he was told there was a problem. There was nothing to prosecute and JSTOR, the victim if there was one, said as much. This was totally prosecutorial overreach and those two need to be held accountable for it.
StandUpJokeOff; Dan Fogelberg is dead, so rest easy, but, if you still jam out to Billy Idol and Boston - hang up and dial 911 asap.
People do them selves in for all kinds of reasons - you don't know why until you know why, and then you still might not know why. Even those who get paid to know why - don't know why - it's whatever fits best on the forms, so the why is likely to not at all be the why - which only leaves us with the how...How......lol.
ProIndividual-3906907
Question: are you saying that if I make something with my brain rather than my hands that it should be less protected and I should have a lesser freedom to profit from it?
Our founders chose to protect patents for a reason and I'm just not sure that I see this as black and white as you seem to.
@ProIndividual - So are you saying that an author who spends months of his life writing a novel should not be afforded any protection of the content or be allowed to make money from it?!?! If that were the case why would anyone become an author. Are you saying that every food company out there should not be allowed to keep their recipes secret and protect them. They should be forced to give them away so anyone else can go manufacture the same product, taking advantage of all the time and testing that went into creating that recipe without having to compensate anyone?!?! Should a software company be forced to give away their product for free and not be compensated for the time and money spent developing the software?!?! I could give many more examples of the absurdity of your position, but I think I have made my point. Intellectual property is most definitely property and it can and does have very significant value. Those who dedicate their time, energy, and often money to producing it should have the right to protect their creations and profit from them. Without those protections, who would ever invest in creating something new.
At least THIS criminal didn't take anybody with him......Still,..lets not let a good tragedy go to waste......I support an assault-rope ban,and a ban on high tensile strength rope.....after all,that type of rope is only intended for Military rappelling applications........................U.S. Army Disabled Veteran
J_P_PatchesPal_1, funny you should mention Boston. The lead singer commited suicide. His note whined about the legal troubles the band had over the years....
?
i agree with your sarcasm justwonderin, rope can be VERY leathal,we should ONLY allow those that have been properly screened for physcological inefficiencies to possess rope,and this climing rope used by people that climb rocks?(they should be checked 'cause that is not NORMAL behavior!) anyone who needs rope must present a plan to the goverment for use,and when done they should leave it with a goverment agency(we can create one). NOONE should have access to rope without going through the proper channels!
@ProIndividual-3906907
I'm sorry but no. JS is correct. If I'm broke and I decide that to make some money I'm going to take and create a game that I'm then gonna upload to itunes for 99 cents a download. And your belief is that if some @!$%# decides to take a copy of my game and offer it free on his website, that's ok?
Bull@!$%#.
@ justwonderin
@ @!$%#_you
Not sure if you noticed, but the whole 'ban this' thing got retarded about a week ago, and to continue to throw it out there like you're being witty is just as idiotic.
This dope looks to have had the typical Operation Wall Street and Democratic Liberal attitude !!!! This was all about " Social Justice " so he shouldn't get punished ????? Bulls#@! He saved us Taxpayers some money so I think that's some Justice !!!
Beautiful, in this society, where so many CLAIM to want us to regain our sense of "personal responsibility", we all want to blame the government for this guys suicide. Face it people, the reason the gov pursued the case against this guy and chose not to prosecute the banksters for their fraud is on word: MONEY. In this country the gov will always, and has always defended the moneyed class and their rights to make more money. But, the bottom line is this guy got caught breaking the law and chose to off himself.... 100% HIS FAULT, not the governments! Where is the outrage over the Boston U student being assessed millions of dollars in fines for downloading music off Napster? I dont think he has killed himself yet. Guess who pursued the case? The recording billionaires!
While attending college, do you know that any ideas you come up with are considered property of the university? While working for a company, anything that I make to better the process of work becomes the property of that company. It seems the government thinks we are too stupid to come up with individual ideas and wouldn't be intelligent without pay to play education and work.
I believe we should be asking his question, "Why does a private company keep the catalog of information for public institutions? And why should schools and students need to pay to access information, that they rightfully own?" He would have smoked the government and won his case. I believe he was "Let Go" by our government to keep the status qou on IP and Patent laws. Only in US law can a friggin rectangle be patented, right Apple? I might refer you to the movie "Hudsucker Proxy" for a taste of Corporate Absurdity.
you said it.society today seems to only accecpt perfect and not less.fine,maybe someday they will notice some flaw in that,just as the ones who created perfect did too.
"I see JSTOR is so sorry he's dead on there web site, Is this a cover our ass or they really sorry?"
And just what do they need to cover their ass for?
If Aaron truly believed his crimes were justifiable and transparency was his ultimate goal, he should have kept up the fight and hopefully found the jurists that understood his philosophy. Just maybe there were more than one underlying factor which prompted him to murder himelf. The bottom line being that he himself chose to end his life and his family has no one but Aaron to blame for his own murder. Suicide... the unforgiveable sin.
"The kid did not deserve to die, but let's not forget that he was a criminal and he tool his own life because he could not deal with the consequences."
I guess you're missing the point. The feds will find the worse crimes they can come up with to charge you with and then add 5 more crimes on top of that and act like your the worse of the worse and then beat you over the head with a hammer to get a conviction. This guy downloaded papers and he deserved 30 years in jail? The people he stole from didn't even support the feds in this procecution. These guys definitely over charge and over react to crimes. They are out to put a win on their resumes and they don't care who you are , unless you can afford to buy your way off. All the while never doing anything to the big bankers and big Money people that commit far worse crimes almost daily.
Our Justice system is porked as bad as our congress is.
I was listening to a show on the radio about cognitive science and the effect cognition has on what we value and how much we value it. I am sorry this young man did not value more what the future holds.
I think about the 19th century Russian novelist, Dostoevsky, going to be hung by the state and at the last second being reprieved and sent off to a hellish term in prison. I think of the writings of V. Frankl, keeping body and soul together in a Nazi concentration camp where Jews were exterminated using factory production methods. The stories of survivors of genocide perpetrated by the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia.
I do not blame the victim of hopelessness for losing hope. I am sorry for the Swartz family's loss.
You know that old saying, "...I don't feel so good myself". Suicidal ideation, a state of mind, life can be so de-valued as not to be worth living. Finding meaning in suffering... that is a gift to share.
"Suicide... the unforgiveable sin."
says who? Your book of fairy tales?
"This dope looks to have had the typical Operation Wall Street and Democratic Liberal attitude !!!! This was all about " Social Justice " so he shouldn't get punished ????? Bulls#@! He saved us Taxpayers some money so I think that's some Justice !!!"
Its not that he shouldn't be punished but let make the time fit the crime. 30 years for a victimless non violets crime? seriously? Murderers get less.
I wish the media would stop trying to condition us to be against authority, I'm so sick of this self affirmation crap. No, we're supposed to be caught up, because these parents are in stages of denial? Stealing is wrong, regardless of your motivation. Basically, this is just a teen, with too much time and a great deal of intellect, who got caught with their hands in the cookie jar, freaked out because somebody found out, and then took drastic measures to escape. What ever happened to do the crime, spend the time.
The DA isn't to blame because his overindulging parents believe he should have just got a slap on the wrist. Their job is to discourage crime through criminal prosecution. If he wanted JSTOR so bad, why not just go to a school that gave him access to it instead of steal it. There are plenty of colleges who allow advanced students, often as young as eight. I went to college with an 18 year old, who had her ph'd in psychology. Yes, she acted like an 18 year old, but the point is there are still programs out there.
My book? What makes you think it is my book just because I used one of it's quotes? I don't forgive or condone a persons suicide no more than I would you or even one of my own children should they decide to murder themselves. If you believed you were targeting a thumper, trust me, you missed the mark.
@ Rocky Road Thank you for reminding me of Clinton's episode with the lending institutions that started the collapse of the housing market that Bush was blamed for can you add to that for the benefit of the readers on how Barney Franks, Fanny May, and Nancy Pelosi further contributed and walked away clean.
This article is a good example of a over reacting Prosecution system in America and it needs to be looked in to, there were some infringements but the prosecutor's who were attempting to further their carers did everything possible to bloat the case and pile up the charges, a grose over reaction that is common practice they were out for blood, and now they have it, they will not be accountable for their contribution to his death, the Truth is he did this to himself and you can not accuse someone else for what happened but you can make them feel the shame of pushing someone to that extreme you can remind them what Piecesof Sh!t they are in the eyes of the public, you can make their names a fowl house hold word, you can do the same to them as they do to others, maybe they will jump off a bridge, then all eyes turn to you, so nice how it works isn't it. Damn I'm afraid America is turning into a hoard of finger pointing liberal Nazi's, lets hang some pictures of our leaders all over the place, big pictures so we can get with the collective spirit, and find some scapegoats to blame things on,we can point fingers! it will be therapeutic.
So zelous the bastards make me sick anything they can do to destroy a life government and its henchmen are the biggest bullies on the block let them start by setting an example of not bullying and for who ever is the one that was so zelous in your job you sir or mam are a piece of @!$%# u nazi bastards and thats not even talking about the people that get killed in the so called name of justice which is so crooked unless u have the big money to pay a lawyer hey people are catching on to you
Shame! A brilliant life GONE! SHAME!
He may have been talented, but stealing is stealing no matter how much you want to "liberate" documents. His family is into shame right now, what about shame that they raised a thief? How self-centered.
Stealing, REALLY? According to WHOM, an UNJUST, JUSTICE "SYSTEM"?
God, Auto1rn. Shouldn't you be hanging up pictures of Fidel Castro somewhere and burning the American flag. Quit being so hysterical and immature. What are you, 12? Society has rules and he broke them because he smugly thought he floated above. Guess he found out he was wrong. Lesson to others.
You get less time for rape, child molestation and murder than this young man was facing! There is something very, very, wrong with this picture!
For downloading some scholarly documents (that are now free), the federal govt pressed charges in which the penalty amounted to over 30 years in prison and millions in fines.
For ripping off the country and throwing millions of people out of work then fraudulently foreclosing on them when after they'd used all their savings to pay their notes, the banks get trillions in taxpayer dollars as a reward and protection from elected officials.
S in SD #1.15
You're absolutely right. If our society does not protect intellectual property, we will no longer be motivated to create intellectual property. Although the quantity of effort is different, there's really not that much difference between writing a book and printing the book, for example; somebody had to show up to work each day and actually do it.
JS in SD:
Did you forget what country he/you are from? Innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.
Your thinking is one of the reasons we are regressing to third world status.
ProIndividual-3906907 Comment collapsed by the community
Right because nothing encourages innovation and invention more than the inability to profit from your hard work...Oh...wait...That doesn't make any sense whatsoever.
KeenInsight
Several people have made similar comments, can I please ask exactly what is the point other than to bitch about something completely unrelated to the story?? Are you people suggesting that we go after criminals based upon how much money they have? Are you suggesting this kid should have been ignored because there are other people more "deserving" of being prosecuted??
Frankly, it's getting a little old listening to the constant whining about bankers in every friggin thread.
As a software programmer, I can say this: Intellectual property IS property. Why should I put work into creating software without getting paid, when the beneficiaries of my work, legally acquired or not, are making money off it, and I don't?
Meanwhile, countless millions are attacking the Second Amendment, which protects the entire Bill of Rights.
Rocky Rhode, Thank you for bringing this very correct and important point up. The majority of Americans just don't know this or do not want to hear this but, this is where the housing problem started. Not to say the banks did not do anything wrong, but the real reason for the catastrophe is Clinton and the frigging Democrats who controlled the houses.
The "suicide" was the government's way of sending a warning to Anonymous.
It's admirable what the guy did on taking on the government. America is no longer free...it's run by a self-serving bureaucracy and campaign contributing multi-zillionaires. His mistake is he's so idealistic he thinks the government won't fight back. He was unwilling to take the heat. So he is no heroic soul. His parents should just shut up and probably never have given him a computer.
Stealing my ass u sheep, dont put it on the internet then , evil is the word and so what it takes all kinds but glad i dont have a neighbour whose job is doing government dirty work or one of their henchmen , glad u sheep have the shepard you deserve
Ron-975213
Taking on the government? Ummm, based on what we see here in the story, the guy killed hmself after the government got involved. Not exactly my definition of "taking them on".
I'm sorry, but all this talk about government overreach is bogus, at least in this instance. The guy knew he was wrong downloading insane amounts of articles from JSTORE, he just hoped he wouldn't get caught. And then he decides to take his own life? So what, if you're going to illegally download pirated movies, MP3's, software, and get caught and can't handle the implications, the government is at fault...? Seems like 'poor' Aaron missed a lot of proper parenting and real life lessons.
He was suspected of a crime so why take his own life before he had his day in court. He is not a victim, he is a person who made the choice to take his own life. We have become a nation that will blame the government for everything instead of accepting the decisions we make. Yes, we do have a corrupt justice system where so many with wealth and influence can weasel their way out of prosecution while those of meager means get the book thrown at them but we as a people have no one to blame because we have allowed our justice system to continue this atrocity since we became a country. I keep hearing those who quote the constitution but they never fight for equality relating to the justice system. Don't forget our constitution states that all men are created equal but we know that's not the truth.
I don't get why so many people are thanking Rocky Road for telling a blatant lie. The President does not get to determine who can or can not join the FDIC, and no banks for forced to lend any money. They did so because they found ways to profit from bad debt. Just so happens that way was basically a securities pyramid scheme, and like all pyramid schemes, it had a limited shelf life.
Basically, it is. Everyone is granted the same opportunities, but the constitution doesn't guarantee equal success.
Rocky road - You listen to too much Fox News. How in hell could Clinton force a bank to lend money?
The economic crisis was caused by Republican, Phil Gramm, writing legislation to remove the protections of Glass-Steagall, which had protected the country since the great depression. The removal of Glass-Steagall, enabled the banks to do "credit default swaps", which was the primary cause of the Bush Depression.
Freddie and Fannie were under the control of the Republicans and Bush administration for Bush's first 6 years. They held control of the Senate, House and Executive branches of government. In fact, they also had the majority in the Judicial branch. So please tell us how Barney Frank could impose his will and make the banks do anything.
McCain was going to make Phil Gramm the Sec. of the Treasury, if we had elected the fool.
Only a certified moron could buy the garbage you right wing nuts try to peddle.
Good post sotired.
In (collapsed) Post 1.10, ProIndividual wrote: The deceased was not a "criminal", because he was breaking an unjust law.
What's wrong with THAT picture? Since when do we get to pick and choose which laws we want to obey and which we want to ignore?
These were academic articles, not games, not novels. The authors wrote them to further their careers and/or education not to make a profit.
It is the Decalration of Independence which claims that all me are created equal.
Thank you ProIndividual for your comments concerning intellectual property.
I have said the same thing for decades. Making money off an idea or the like adininitum is pure and simple garbage. Longterm copyrights and patents are total BS.
LMAO! Do you really think 'Joe from the hood' would ever be granted an appointment to meet with even his lowly state representative? What are the odds you will ever have the "opportunity" to take advantage of the same tax laws as Mitt? Or does your local cleaners have the opportunity to take advantage of the same tax laws as BofA? How many inner city kids are prepped for Harvard?
Hitting the "opportunity" jackpot has about the same odds as hitting the lottery.
The founding fathers wrote the Constitution with their own and those of the elite's interests in mind. He who owns the ball sets the rules.
There's no law that says Joe from the hood is underprivileged, unless he forfeited his rights by getting incarcerated, or such. There's also no law that says anyone has to pass Joey the ball, but it says that he can go and fetch it, like everyone else.
Chances are that you're posting from a computer that's not government subsidized, running a commercial operating system other than Linux. If it is garbage what others produce, why do you keep using it?
And that's the beauty of perpetuating the myth that everyone has the same opportunities as everybody else. There is no law, so it must be true.
What would you rather have? Incompetent people in positions so they produce mediocrity, or fail? Dragging the overall performance down, like in a communistic country?
Uh, in case you haven't noticed, capitalism, or the myth that everybody has the same opportunity, is failing:
http://investorplace.com/2011/04/imf-says-china-will-overtake-us-economy-by-2016/
Nobody is forcing you to stay, unlike in communistic countries...
It doesn't change the facts.
Fact is that economy is driven by capitalism, even in China. Why do you think, for example, Apple has relocated its factories to China? The largest holder of US debt is China, and that is a capitalistic concept. Is it wrong, if so, why? Irresponsibility is wrong, and that's the only fact.
I'm torn here. If someone takes something that does not belong to them they are a thief. People feel sorry for this guy because they believe he was treated too harshly after being caught stealing. I would disagree because what is the deterent we have in place to stop these digital thieves? Maybe being harsh is the way to go to make it stop but wait......... How many of us had our money stolen by Wall Street, then watched as the top executives were still paid bonuses? How many people in these huge fiancial companies had major charges (felonies) pressed against them? How many of these people had minor charges (misedmeanor) pressed agains them? How many of these financial institutions received a slap on the wrist and billions in bailout money? Where is their deterent? No punishment for this huge heist so it WILL happen again.
I am not pro-hacking, if you are stealing something from someone else, but let's get our priorities straight. This guy stole academic documents and may or may not have sold them later. He didn't hurt anyone, he didn't ruin anyone's life. Big bank and insurance screwed up the entire world when their bubble burst. They ruined lives, stole from retirement funds, kicked people out on the street and wrecked the world economy which we are still recovering from five years later. Who needs to be strong armed and bullied???? Wall Street. Who doesn't have lobbyists in Washington???? Hackers, hacktivists.
I see a war coming and the hackers are going to lose to the bankers because whoever has more money always wins. Bully the hacker because he can't afford to fight. Bully the banker and he leaves the country with his/her money and barely a worry because who's going to come after them? The polititians that rely on their contributions????? I think not.
Yes, because the minimum/slave wage is a fraction of what is mandated here and that means more corporate profit. Hey, there's nothing wrong with capitalism when you're the CEO.
Yes, and the Achilles heel of capitalism is the fact that humans can be and are, irresponsible, as noted in the banking fiasco which brought this country to its knees.
Not necessarily. We got sent home with our tail between in legs from Vietnam and it wasn't due to a lack of money. They outsmarted us.
They didn't really outsmart us, that was one where we won all the battles but lost the war. They were more willing to die than we were, as it turns out. Which makes sense, since we were fighting in/for THEIR home.
Sotired seems to forget that even when those words were written into the Declaration of Independence they sure as hell weren't true. They are more true now than in 1776, thankfully, but still not fully realized. You have to be amazingly naive or stupid to think that everyone born in America receives the same opportunities for success. Most people are distinctly disadvantaged from the get go.
go big gov
our government has been embarrassed and still being embarrassed by hackers who expose there criminal activity and cover ups.
I thought the dems were to be the most transparent ever, instead has become the worst in cover ups ! WTF
they way I look at it is "if you do nothing wrong, then you have nothing to worry about"
Sax1031
mike-2598123 Ignoring author
Wow, Sax and Mike, you guys really need to trade in those old tin-foil helmets for bigger sizes. Those are clearly crushing your craniums. The old noodles are just getting too full of conspiracy theories, I guess.
Imagine that, the US Justice Department prosecuting violations of the law? HORRORS!!!! Oh, the humanity!!!!!
Dudes, you REALLY need some professional help. You have turned into serious whackadoodles (but I imagine enough people have already told you that, right?)
He didn't steal government documents. He stole academic documents. Documents that universities invested time and money to research and write. The idea of this is that companies that want to use that information for commercial efforts would pay them to use it, helping them recover the research costs and perform the next level of research. That punk thief's idea that all information should be free conveniently ignores the fact that it was not free to generate that information in the first place, and without any means of recouping some of that cost, the resources to conduct the next level of research will be gone.
So in summary, this is a story of a misguided punk thief who commits suicide when his crimes are caught. Excuse me if I am not inclined to mourn.
@erwin, All JSTOR is is a database of articles from several sources such as newspapers, professional journals, academic research papers and similar formats. Most of these are readily available through a simple web search (heck, even Google has a scholarly search function to assist with finding these types of sources). JSTOR's racket is they've got a more refined search function for these articles, they don't do any of the particular research themselves, so the only stealing he did was akin to stealing your neighbor's WiFi signal. He just didn't pay a membership fee to JSTOR. This post isn't an attempt to make you feel any worse off of the kid, just giving you a clearer picture of what JSTOR is and what he really did.
He sounded like a brilliant...criminal. The family is placing blame on the wrong entity, and should be blaming Swartz himself. Beyond his criminal hacking, he is the one, who took his own life. Had he not been a criminal, none of this would have happened.
Jeff - you are posting false statements. Almost none of the JSTOR articles can be found and downloaded via google. They are proprietary documents that have been published by various organizations. JSTOR pays for the right to distribute them electronically. If they were available for free - JSTOR's business would not exist. All google will tell you is where the articles are available.
Let's try posting truth next time - ok?
It says he downloaded 50,000 articles. If you performs a Google search for academic articles, you are able to locate the information, but you will not able to download copywrighted material if the website authorized to host that material expects you to purchase it. I am certain that JSTOR pays some type of royalty back to the holder of the intellectual property rights of the material. Why else would MIT be involved if they were intending to give the information away for free anyway?
Not condoning what he did. A crime is a crime but facing 30 years for this when a failed terrorist gets 14 is hideous in the least.
Now the question I have for some of you is this. If the institutions who wrote these research papers were given (granted) money from the government Tax payers money) then shouldn't these papers be more public and not cost someone $50,000 to see one?
Well, Alex Jones says that Swartz's death was at the hands of government agents, as was FPS Russia's death. Moreover Alex says that "they're" out to get him next. It must be true; you can't put it on the Internet if it isn't true, right?
FPS Russia didn't die.
If you're referring to Keith Ratliff when you speak of FPS Russia - he was murdered a couple of days ago - hardly the same thing.
This kid broke the law - got caught - and took a cowards way out.
My heart goes out to his family - I have little of it left to offer him.
not always true mike 2.1,and robert in oregon,our goverment doesn't prosecute ALL crimes,what would you call "fast and furious"? eric not only didn't get prosecuted for this CRIME, but we get to pay his salary for four MORE years! and kevin how can you call this liberal a criminal? he was fighting for the right to steal property! thank god he took the cowards way out WITHOUT STEALING SOMEONES GUNS HUH?
Ummm. I believe "Fast and Furious" was originally Bush's plan.
@bobber
"Ummm. I believe "Fast and Furious" was originally Bush's plan."
No it was not. Bush's plan was called gun walking. The plan called for guns to be fitted with gps tracking devices then sold to drug gangs in Mexico. Then the guns would be tracked. The program was considered a failure and ended 2 years before Obama took office.
Fast and furious was started buy Obama's administration. Similar plan but no use of gps tracking devices. So with no way to track the guns (except serial numbers when the guns are found) several of the guns were found at location where innocent people were murdered including U.S. border patrol agents.
Bush has his failures as president
Obama has his failures as president
But lets not Blame Bush for Obama's failure.
i don't recall an ERIC HOLDER in bushes administration, i'm pretty sure he's obamas' chimp,er i meant chump(i think) but now he is OURS again for four more years of "change". and you're right tim,they are BOTH failures to equal degrees in my book. we have four more years now to see which one comes out as TOP failure
Do you know what sucks about suicide? its when you are completely committed, there is no turning back and you suddenly change your mind, like after you kick out the stool or after you leap off the tall structure, when you have a little time to think about what you are doing and decide that is not the right choice for you, and you realize that there isn't a damn thing you can do to change the situation. think before you leap. suicide is a permanent solution to a temporary problem.
it does not matter his motives, if he really felt that all the info should be free then he should have done his own research on the subjects published his own findings and then give his research away not steel someone Else's and attempt to give it away, what is it about people that makes them think that everything should be provided for free? that takes away all the incentive to do it in the first place, if you cant make a living doing it then why do it? the system would fall apart, so what he was doing was wrong, his way of dealing with the consequences were also wrong, what makes everyone think he was so damn smart? looks to me as though he was making one mistake after the other, is that what we refer to as educated beyond your intelligence. he may have been educated but he was not very intelligent, he did some really stupid things and wastefully threw his life away that is not intelligent. maybe his mentor should share in some of the blame.
lmfao,,,,,
hurmph,,,,
Laws made by the rich to protect the rich 30 years, would of been less time for murder , goes to show dont play with the rich peoples money or your going away for a long time
So sad.
Sounds like a young man who had a great deal of opportunity in life. I read he had wealthy father who was in the tech industry. It sounds like Aaron made many impulsive and questionable decisions in life. Maybe it caught up with him and he couldn't cope with the consequences of his own doings.
Aaron co-authored the RSS 1.0 specification.
Aaron was co-founder of Reddit.
Aaron was a major contributor to DemandProgress.
Aaron was one of the key individuals responsible for Creative Commons.
Aaron was a major contributor to John Gruber's Markdown.
Aaron was a major contributor to the Python web.py framework.
These were his notable accomplishments. Minor ones? Too many to list.
he was a thief.
As are you, I really don't think that's your picture!!! Therefore, you stole it!
You have a valid point, There are many on this vine who have converted copyrighted photos for their own personal use and it is wrong and yet the Moderators do nothing about it, It does not negate the fact that this kid also stole copyrighted material, He hacked into protected equipment and transmitted that protected material over the internet.
Disclaimer: My photo is of a black vulture in my back yard, The vulture gave up his right to privacy when he entered my property which is posted private property. I took the photo and it belongs to me {;~]
good one lost,and last i knew HACKERS breaking into other computers is a CRIME. this is more of the "no accountability liberal" thinking to blame the goverment. i mean you don't have to LOOK for things to blame the goverment for. this is his parents denial of raising a CRIMINAL,nothing more, and mr foof are those "contributions" similar to our "contributions" here?
Hey LostIn ThePineBarrens: That's good stuff right there. Lucky for you the vulture didn't fry itself on a power line or drown in your pool. You would have all these idiots blaming you for the bird's death.
I'm sick of you bicycle helmet wearing, window licking, tards, aka helicopter parents who think it's never your or your kid's fault for their behavior. "It's society's fault". Why? Because your kid got 2nd in some science fair when he was 8 yrs old. So if we didn't have judges at the science fair and instead had "everyone is a winner for trying" then little Johnny wouldn't have grown up to stalk, kidnap, kill people, and wear the victim's faces as masks?
WAKE THE F#CK UP PEOPLE! It's time to stop blaming everyone else for what we or our kids do. If that is the case then we need to feel sorry for a guy who rapes and kills children because he was made fun of, one time, in the lockeroom when he was in school.
Aaron was a hacker. A HACKER. Do you all know what hackers do? "but he was a good hacker", or even better, "his was a victimless crime". All we know about are the hacks he either got accolades for or the ones he got caught for. He did hundreds or even thousands of hacks that only he and his buddies know about and I guarantee not all of them were vicimless crimes. Here is a scenerio for all of you. So if it wasn't JSTOR that he hacked, but your bank and he took all your life savings, your kid's college fund, your retirement, etc. would you feel the same way? Most of you would cheer that he hung himself.
If I get a ticket for jay walking I have to pay that ticket, no matter how stupid of a law jay walking is. Why? because it's in our country's law that it is an offense. No one made him do this @!$%#. He knew what he was doing is considered illegal and still did it. Was the US Attorney's Office coming down on him too hard? hackers do what they do for the thrill. Because no one else can do it. They do thing's like Aaron did and they also hack our government's security agencies and sell the info to terrorist's. They try and shut down whole corporations systems which, in the end, would mean thousand's of people with either no job or having to wait three months with no paycheck because all information was lost and the system is frozen. yes he stole some articles, but what about the next challenge or the one after that? We have laws for a reason and he broke a few. He was a criminal, he got caught (which means he wasn't as intelligent as he thought), he couldn't handle it, he killed himself. He is to blame, and obviously his parents are since he was hacking (illegal activity) when he was a kid. Deal with it.
imhakin-right another scenario,what if he hacked into pentagon computers and set off missiles to kill the "bad" people in this world?
What if the sky were green and the grass blue?
That would be AWESOME! Then we wouldn't be sending Billions of our Taxpayer dollars to People who want us DEAD!
Great skills, to bad his parents raised him become a criminal.
Who is the criminal here? When the govt used OUR tax dollars to create records, they then charged people $.10 per copy to access the material, so Aaron just downloaded the items to make them available to everyone.
He was being brought to court for violating a Web service's terms of use, not for stealing academic material and was about to be handed more jail time than the bank executives that almost ruined our economy.
also, "to bad" should be "too bad."
Actually if you read the article yes he was being charged for downloading (that's stealing) over 3 million academic documents. He was also being charged with felonies for wire and computer fraud since hacking into a computer that doesn't belong to you is also illegal. If you want to knock other posters you should probably read the material and understand what you are talking about first.
It's always and predictable anymore, when parents who haven't really parented but befriended their children do something anti social ...blame someone else. The prosecuters are to blame because they were moving ahead to prosecute this criminal and he got scared into killing himself. Ehhhhh........ maybe you should have taught him some ethics instead of blaming others. Here's an idea why is your kid dead ...start with a mirror.
jw,hurray on that grammar correction,i had NO idea what he meant! and check your FACTS our goverment(with mr. clintons approval) MADE these banks loan money to people who could not AFFORD to own a home,or they were to be fined and taken off the fdic status ,which would have ruined them,so first prosecute these politicians for there criminal behavior,then go down the line. HELLO, OUR GOVERMENT ruined our economy! banks just took advantage of people with the "variable rate mortgage" saying their credit wasn't good enough for a "fixed" rate.
And just how do you know his "parents raised him to be a criminal"? You don't. Glad you're not my "doc."
nightwalker28.....Maybe YOU need clarification.
The complaint of wire and computer fraud were charges that the government created, not complaints made by JSTOP.
"The government has interpreted the anti-hacking provisions to include activities such as violating a Web site's terms of service or a company's computer usage policy, a position a federal appeals court in April said means "millions of unsuspecting individuals would find that they are engaging in criminal conduct."
You get less time for rape, child molestation and murder than this young man was facing! There is something very, very, wrong with this picture!
THERESA-532036
Most people GET less time than they are FACING. There is no reason to believe he would have gotten the max 30 years.
Doesn't really sound like a suicide to me....
I hope this is thoroughly investigated.
My thoughts, exactly. Too many suicides of people going against the government, lately. Have read about a few others and things really just don't seem kosher to me. Hope his family pushes the issue and gets the right answers. Rest In Peace, young man.
Yes, Swartz was a great programmer and made some pretty impressive contributions. What this article does not emphasize is that he BROKE into a MIT computer closet, setup a fake user account, and proceeded to download illegally. Also this wasn't the first time he did something like this. I don't understand why people say the government had to let him off with just a slap on the wrist even if JSTOR decided not to press charges.
Even if you support online downloading of information (which I do), what he did was wrong. Imagine if I broke into your house and used your internet to torrent music and movies. Even if you think that downloading should be legal, breaking in and hacking other people's resources is wrong. Swartz had access to JSTOR through his affiliation with Harvard. He decided to break into the MIT system so he could take the information secretly. He could have openly downloaded the stuff under his own name but made legitimate MIT users pay for his actions. For over 2 months, access to JSTOR was limited at MIT due to his actions.
@people questioning if JSTOR is sincere about their statement, they are. They asked the government not to press charges against the guy.
I think what you're forgetting is that he was up against a potential 30 year sentence which is a little extreme given the circumstances of taking some academic articles.
That said, he likely would never have gotten that strong of a sentence and probably would've gotten simply time served plus parole. Who knows though... I am sure the prosecutors and investigators did aim to scare the living hell out of him to force him into a plea. They usually pull that in order to get hackers to cooperate and turn on other hackers (because normally they do. See "Sabu" from anonymous.)
All that aside, what a shame.
Those were the maximum sentences that would have been allowed by law if he was convicted and sentenced consecutively for each offense, We all know that no one is ever sentenced that way unless the crimes are so horrific that it is required, More likely this kid would have gotten off with very little jail/prison time and a fine.
they always trump up as much as possible,maybe some GUIDANCE from his PARENTS could have set him at EASE,but we'll never know,because a liberals' form of guidance is PROJECTION of guilt!
Why do people always blame parents? This was a ridiculously intellegent MAN who made his first major contribution to technology at age 14. His parents were probably loving parents who gave him a stellar education, but imagine being a parent to a child with that kind of ability? While people point their fingers at others, their own children are downloading music, movies, games illegally and they don't know it because they are too busy telling other people what bad parents they are. This man was 26, well past the age he had to listen to his parents.
I am so sorry. Sounds like a huge loss for mankind. He was so young! What a shame.
Too bad the prosecutors aren't dead instead.
Rocky Rhode banned, rereg of zipperthecat.
Uh, emotional problems and weakness killed him, not the government.
He downloaded 4 million articles? Why?
Because access to them costs us $50,000, but to government officials, they are free.
This is about freedom of public information.
Also because if you've ever used those academic databases you'll know, they suck balls. Horrible software.
I have the same question. Did he intend to read them, publish them free to the world, or what? I don't get it.
access to them non-public academic articles cost colleges and other schools 50,000 dollars a year and students of those schools have OPEN access to those PAID for articles! and rocky,given the state of our goverment you think they are reading anything academic? and no it wouldn't be free for them either!
A brilliant light extinguished, a voice for open information and open internet silenced. I agree that this was prosecutorial overreach and with horrifying and saddening consequences. Here was a young person with a lot to offer all of us.
And, remind me, what is the reason our government cannot prosecute the financial wizards that brought the economy down? Yet they were somehow energized around pursuing this gifted young academic.
Yes, SHAME.
Yes, Clinton should be prosecuted for what he did.
you're right about clinton rocky but we HAVE to add obama to that list and our ever delightful fool gw
Many of these comments are very sad, and show the extent that our society has come to value material goods and money over life. I have personally been pursued by the Just-US department and the IRS for crimes committed Against me and my family for standing up for Native American rights. My children were shot at by a Federal Secret Service agent TWICE while playing in their own yard, because of our opposition to the destruction of a 10,000 yr. old to 1848, Indigenous burial ground. The government thought it was a great idea to dig up my ancestors and put a salt mine upon them instead.. No crimes committed by me or any of the Native people who opposed it, we were just IN THE WAY, and when you are in the way of MONEY you are dispensible.
All of you self-righteous people calling this brilliant young man a "criminal" before the fact, remember one thing. YOU ARE ALL ON STOLEN LAND and by ignoring that fact, you are also criminals complicit in benefitting from the thievery of your forefathers and their constitution, which reads in part...Art. XI, sec.II...This Constitution and TREATIES made and to be Made...are the Supreme Law of the Land! The constitution has been violated and nullified since before the ink was dry. Your forefathers were cowards who came to this country running from their own repression rather than stand up and fight! Then you stole from and killed our people, the true Patriots who occupied this beautiful land and have been trying to justify and/or hide the genocide of my people since day one.
Everything that is happening to continue this cover up and the escalation of hate, violence, imprisonment and silencing of those who are trying to do good for the collective peoples who inhabit Turtle Island will continue, until the acknowledgment of the original sins of your white, moneyed, slave-owning gun-toting forefathers are addressed.
May the Creator protect and bless those who continue the fight for justice for all loving and sharing peoples. Nya : skannon aguago, Aaron and family! As Chief Joseph said:"There is no death, only a change of worlds". Hoka Hey!
Lets be clear: anyone who kills themselves has something wrong with them. If a normal person is accused of a crime, they don't just go and kill themselves.... they fight it till the bitter end if they believe they are innocent.
Also, while some might argue what he did was a victimless crime... it was in fact still a crime. We have laws for a reason, and if you break them you pay the price. It doesn't matter how good your intentions might be, or how stupid the law is you are still committing a crime. It also doesn't matter how young you are, or how much good stuff you might have done.
Bottom line, this was a talented young man who made a few bad choices and couldn't live with the consequences of those actions (likely for some underlying mental issue). People can blame the government, or MIT all they want... but it was Aaron Swartz who made the choice to break the law, and then to kill himself. No one else.
Yes john what he did was a crime but 30+ years for a victimless crime is ludicrous. You can commit first degree murder and get less time. That is the problem with what the government was doing. They made it a witch hunt, because they want to be seen as tough on cybercrime, even though they are making laws about something none of them know anything about. Most Computer legislation is flawed because of this very reason. And i wouldnt say there was anything wrong with him. He suffered from depression like most americans.
He wouldn't have gotten anything close to 30 years. Most prosecutors take the maximum sentence to court and it gets whittled down through bargaining and other means. Plus good behavior shaves more time off. Probably would have served less than ten years if that.
I knew a guy who was in a gunfight while on parole and killed two people. He only did 14 years for that and called me asking for a job. He killed them at a bar called Big Arts. Nuff said.
You're absolutely right, John. I would counter one point though, those laws aren't stupid laws. It's important we do fight wire fraud and unauthorized entry to a computer when it has serious implications (identity theft, etc.). It probably wasn't appropriate to charge him on that in this instance though.
I am sure that they would've dropped half of those crimes and let him plea for house arrest or parole or something. It's a shame he didn't wait them out.
nolan they would have most definately dropped it down,he might of got a few years probation,after character witnesses and such,again we have to say with some PARENTAL GUIDANCE he might have calmed down enough to not do this,but we will never know now. because of lack of guidance from his parents. as a parent i would have reassured my kid that it was not the end of the world and we would fight it together,but liberals' only THINK they are helping their kids by coddling them their entire life! i have seen it in my "neck o' the woods" alot. no accoutability at all breeds tormented people when they get in the REAL world.
I knew a guy who killed another man by bashing his head in with a rock. The reason? He hated black people. Guess how much time he served. 6 years. For killing a 28 year old man in cold blood. Yet stealing academic articles can get you 30. Please make that make sense.
Regardless of the ethics or legality of what Aaron did, please don't let that discussion distract you from what is really important here - the unethical abuse of power by our servants, the US government. This is the same government that some people would like to see have a monopoly on force (some of those people are in positions of power and they direct that force, so they're attempting to reserve the ability to exercise force to themselves). Think about that. If government can behave this way now, how do you think it will behave (possibly not immediately, but at some in the future, during the lives of your children, for instance) when it no longer has to worry about countervailing force?
Thanks Aaron, for doing us the favor of not having to deal with your future hacking exploits.
You should really learn the difference between what he was doing (open exchange of information) and what normal hackers do (denial of service to unethical companies, stealing of personal info). The motivations of these folks are vast and should be thought of as so. This kid had done a lot of good stuff except for this one incident. Even this incident was pretty much a victimless crime.
he was STEALING nolan,he broke into mit because his school did not pay the fee for that information, open exchange...is that what it's called now,because i'd like to open exchange cars with my nieghbor!
The DOJ's relentless pursuit shows they are very concerned about hackers and Anonymous. They are probably celebrating his suicide. Why are they so concerned? Those who have things to hide... So they label such hackers who work for transparency terrorists and hacking acts of war. Meanwhile, the CIA launches cyber attacks against Iran.
Classified material and information in active investigations isn't released because it can usually get people killed if it falls into the wrong hands. Most people don't have anything to hide, but that doesn't mean they want everything about them broadcasted and publicized to everyone.
he was downloading academic material, not sensitive goverment material trying to find out what "they" have to hide.
Yes we even conduct drone strike assassinations of US Citizens who have not been charged/tried/convicted of a crime but yet these same people complain that enhanced interrogation techniques like water-boarding are torture. So I ask this question, Would you rather be water-boarded or have a drone target you. I know what my answer would be. It is as simple as life versus death and let me be clear, I am fine with drone striking our enemies when there is no other way of getting them or if it means a reduced risk to the lives of our servicemen. I do not consider water-boarding to be torture.
I hate to break it to you nerdy Internet freaks, but:
He hacked. Plain and simple. He could have hacked to gain other critical data. That's why the government was giving him a hard time.
You hackers need to understand something: Nobody cares if you're smart. But they will care if you steal, no matter what you're trying to steal - whether you think it's free or millions of dollars. You're not going to change the world and you're not going to be remembered either.
Sorry....
There is no greater threat to us as individuals or our collective freedom than the government. The people who designed the US were students of history and knew this, and that's why they tried to ensure it would always be weak.
I don't have sympathy for this guy. He stole from others and broke the law. There are consequences for your actions, regardless of what positive things you did in the past. If you did 10,000 positive things and then murdered someone--you're most likely going to jail for it, and people will forever remember you as a murderer.
This guy stole a lot of information, which doesn't make him much better than a thief in the end.
Last I heard, a 2/3 majority of murders in the USA, remain unsolved.
There's a big difference between murder and theft. Should we execute people for theft? Chop off a hand? C'mon now.
major,don't know what your point is? and nolan,criminal activity IS criminal activity. what if it was your computer he hacked into and stole something you were selling? would you feel he shouldn't be prosecuted for it? i doubt it.
And yet he admitted to contemplating suicide 5 years ago
Most people have at some point in their lives.
I am in my 60's, I have never contemplated taking my own life for any reason and I have gone thru some pretty tough times, I highly doubt your blanket statement that "Most" people have has any real merit.
It's the Obama defense, don't take personal responsibility...blame everyone else.
Great minds are often troubled minds. This kid was not an exception to that unfortuntely.
Great minds also sometimes think they are above everything else...like the law for instance. He doesn't appear to be an exception to that either.
Gary Speed, Wales football manager. "Suicide" by hanging.
Flight engineer Remigiusze Musu, the key witness against Russian investigators of the 2010 plane crash that killed Poland's upper echelon. "Suicide" by hanging.
Mark Madoff, son of Bernie Madoff (token fall guy for the global financial crisis), who provoked the wrong people with these words: "You said my father would be out of prison within a year. Get him out of prison now, or I'm going to the news media." "Suicide" by hanging.
When prosecutors take a case to court they pile up the charges with in most cases the understanding that first the judge, and then the jury, and thereafter an appeals judge and, if necessary, second jury, will most likely whittle the case down to manageable proportions. The chances that Swartz would have been handed the full thirty year sentence, or anything close to it, were slim and none. Clearly, for all his brilliance this was an unstable,or at the very least immature, young man. Like many similarly gifted intellectual savants, he seems to have lived so deeply within his own mind that when the real world encroached upon him the hard way he couldn't handle it. It is a shame and the waste of a gift that could have richly benefited mankind.
But the prosecutors did nothing wrong. The penalties for Swartz's alleged crimes were not dreamed up by the prosecutors, but placed on the books by the state and federal legislature in response to rampant white collar data theft. It may well be that in the course of the trial much of this regulatory overkill, if overkill it really is, would have been exposed and criticized, and perhaps there would have been appropriate judicial and legislative corrections applied as a result. Such adjustments often occur only when trials expose excessive or inappropriate legal responses to new and complex situations. Unfortunately, we'll never have the chance to work through this process now - at least, not until a comparable case arises elsewhere.
Regardless, it was the prosecutors' legal and professional obligation to enforce the law. You get the impression from his parents' reaction that this young man was their precious, can-do-no-wrong little prince, and their indignation over his prosecution probably just exacerbated his delusions about being persecuted. There's plenty of blame to go around here, but very little of it should be laid at the feet of the prosecutors.
Except the DA Carmen Ortiz was seeking to make a name for herself in order to make a run for Governor next election. She chose an easy target to exploit then preceded to twist and bend the law to make this simple misdemeanor case into a huge and bloated media event in order to bolster her reputation. And she did. At the expense of Aaron Swartz' life.
But since we never busted any of these corrupt bankers who screwed american over there would have still been plenty of room in the slammer for AS right?
RealPatriot!, Ummm, the bankers lost their ass when the economy collapsed.
You need to look at who coerced them into making the bad loans. How they were coerced, and why. The banks were facing billions in fines if they did not give out those loans by the Clinton administration, and losing FDIC status which would have driven the banks into bankruptcy.
Be angry, but be angry at the right people.
Prosecutors don't overcharge with the intention of having a judge or jury whittle down charges, they do it in order to coerce plea bargains, period. I realize there are practical reasons but I still think the practice is despicable.
It is the selective enforcement of laws and the cherry picking of whom to prosecute that makes this JUST-US system a tragic joke! Just ask people who are facing Life Imprisonment for marijuana violations how they feel about JUST-US, while the man who recently murdered a cop and firefighter in Webster, NY , received only 17 yrs. for savagely beating his 92 yr. old Gramma to death with a hammer!
I learned early on as an Indian kid, an interloper on my own land, that the "cowboys" care MUCH more about drug violations and property crimes than they do HUMAN life!
so the ole government couldnt bust the bankers who robbed america blind so they went after an easy target kid. priorities fully in check. gotcha.