Reddit Co-founder dead (1 Viewer)

[glvsav37]

My link

Aaron Swartz, 26, hanged himself in his Brooklyn apartment weeks before he was to go on trial on accusations that he stole millions of journal articles from an electronic archive in an attempt to make them freely available.

 

[Maelstrom]

He's written a number of times about his struggles with depression. I was a bit tore up about this because he seemed like a really great guy and was involved in quite a few things. Really sad.

 

[Binky The Doormat]

Are they gonna post grotesque coroner pics of him? Seems appropriate.

 

[cstu]

http://www.latimes.com/news/nation/nationnow/la-na-nn-aaron-swartz-congressional-scrutiny-20130118,0,640020.story

House Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), who supported Swartz's opposition to the Stop Online Piracy Act in early 2012, said this week that he'd assigned an investigator to look into Swartz's case. He questioned the bargaining tactics commonly used by federal prosecutors to resolve cases before they reach trial.“I’ll make a risky statement here: Over-prosecution is a tool often used to get people to plead guilty rather than risk sentencing,” Issa told the Huffington Post. “It is a tool of question. If someone is genuinely guilty of something and you bring them up on charges, that’s fine. But throw the book at them and find all kinds of charges and cobble them together so that they’ll plea to a 'lesser included' is a technique that I think can sometimes be inappropriately used.”Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-San Jose) told The Hill that she thought prosecutors' handling of the case was “pretty outrageous," adding, “Based on what I know, I think the Department of Justice was way out of line on the case.”Rep. Jared Polis (D-Colo.), who sits on the House Judiciary Committee with Lofgren and Issa, also told The Hill, “The charges were ridiculous and trumped-up. It's absurd that he was made a scapegoat. I would hope that this doesn't happen to anyone else.”Lofgren has proposed legislation called "Aaron's Law" that would modify the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act -- which prohibits "having knowingly accessed a computer without authorization or exceeding authorized access" -- to modify what some have seen as the law's draconian punishments.

 

[DiStefano]

http://www.latimes.com/news/nation/nationnow/la-na-nn-aaron-swartz-congressional-scrutiny-20130118,0,640020.story

House Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), who supported Swartz's opposition to the Stop Online Piracy Act in early 2012, said this week that he'd assigned an investigator to look into Swartz's case. He questioned the bargaining tactics commonly used by federal prosecutors to resolve cases before they reach trial.“I’ll make a risky statement here: Over-prosecution is a tool often used to get people to plead guilty rather than risk sentencing,” Issa told the Huffington Post. “It is a tool of question. If someone is genuinely guilty of something and you bring them up on charges, that’s fine. But throw the book at them and find all kinds of charges and cobble them together so that they’ll plea to a 'lesser included' is a technique that I think can sometimes be inappropriately used.”Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-San Jose) told The Hill that she thought prosecutors' handling of the case was “pretty outrageous," adding, “Based on what I know, I think the Department of Justice was way out of line on the case.”Rep. Jared Polis (D-Colo.), who sits on the House Judiciary Committee with Lofgren and Issa, also told The Hill, “The charges were ridiculous and trumped-up. It's absurd that he was made a scapegoat. I would hope that this doesn't happen to anyone else.”Lofgren has proposed legislation called "Aaron's Law" that would modify the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act -- which prohibits "having knowingly accessed a computer without authorization or exceeding authorized access" -- to modify what some have seen as the law's draconian punishments.

Apparently we can be bi-partisan about some things. As long as Obama and the House leadership aren't involved.

 

[Ilov80s]

http://www.latimes.com/news/nation/nationnow/la-na-nn-aaron-swartz-congressional-scrutiny-20130118,0,640020.story

House Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), who supported Swartz's opposition to the Stop Online Piracy Act in early 2012, said this week that he'd assigned an investigator to look into Swartz's case. He questioned the bargaining tactics commonly used by federal prosecutors to resolve cases before they reach trial.“I’ll make a risky statement here: Over-prosecution is a tool often used to get people to plead guilty rather than risk sentencing,” Issa told the Huffington Post. “It is a tool of question. If someone is genuinely guilty of something and you bring them up on charges, that’s fine. But throw the book at them and find all kinds of charges and cobble them together so that they’ll plea to a 'lesser included' is a technique that I think can sometimes be inappropriately used.”Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-San Jose) told The Hill that she thought prosecutors' handling of the case was “pretty outrageous," adding, “Based on what I know, I think the Department of Justice was way out of line on the case.”Rep. Jared Polis (D-Colo.), who sits on the House Judiciary Committee with Lofgren and Issa, also told The Hill, “The charges were ridiculous and trumped-up. It's absurd that he was made a scapegoat. I would hope that this doesn't happen to anyone else.”Lofgren has proposed legislation called "Aaron's Law" that would modify the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act -- which prohibits "having knowingly accessed a computer without authorization or exceeding authorized access" -- to modify what some have seen as the law's draconian punishments.

Apparently we can be bi-partisan about some things. As long as Obama and the House leadership aren't involved.

It has been proposed, not passed. I wouldn't get too excited about this yet. Current government has taken a very hard line against whistle blowers, leakers, and hackers.

 

[SacramentoBob]

http://www.latimes.com/news/nation/nationnow/la-na-nn-aaron-swartz-congressional-scrutiny-20130118,0,640020.story

“I’ll make a risky statement here: Over-prosecution is a tool often used to get people to plead guilty rather than risk sentencing,” Issa told the Huffington Post. “It is a tool of question. If someone is genuinely guilty of something and you bring them up on charges, that’s fine. But throw the book at them and find all kinds of charges and cobble them together so that they’ll plea to a 'lesser included' is a technique that I think can sometimes be inappropriately used.”

:greatposting:

 

[17seconds]

Was this guy revered by internet nerds? I have a decent handle on tech personalities and I'm not sure I had heard of him. Certainly never saw a lot of information about him.Asking because I've seen some people on FB go ape#### like John Lennon died or something. "NOOOO!!! HOW COULD THIS HAPPEN!?!?" #### like that. Just being precious?

 

[Ilov80s]

Was this guy revered by internet nerds? I have a decent handle on tech personalities and I'm not sure I had heard of him. Certainly never saw a lot of information about him.Asking because I've seen some people on FB go ape#### like John Lennon died or something. "NOOOO!!! HOW COULD THIS HAPPEN!?!?" #### like that. Just being precious?

Yes, he is a pretty huge legend amongst hardcore Internet users and the whole open Internet movement/freedom of information.

 

[Maurile Tremblay]

Pretty good article here by Jamie Boyle.

 

[Abraham]

http://www.latimes.com/news/nation/nationnow/la-na-nn-aaron-swartz-congressional-scrutiny-20130118,0,640020.story

House Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), who supported Swartz's opposition to the Stop Online Piracy Act in early 2012, said this week that he'd assigned an investigator to look into Swartz's case. He questioned the bargaining tactics commonly used by federal prosecutors to resolve cases before they reach trial.“I’ll make a risky statement here: Over-prosecution is a tool often used to get people to plead guilty rather than risk sentencing,” Issa told the Huffington Post. “It is a tool of question. If someone is genuinely guilty of something and you bring them up on charges, that’s fine. But throw the book at them and find all kinds of charges and cobble them together so that they’ll plea to a 'lesser included' is a technique that I think can sometimes be inappropriately used.”Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-San Jose) told The Hill that she thought prosecutors' handling of the case was “pretty outrageous," adding, “Based on what I know, I think the Department of Justice was way out of line on the case.”Rep. Jared Polis (D-Colo.), who sits on the House Judiciary Committee with Lofgren and Issa, also told The Hill, “The charges were ridiculous and trumped-up. It's absurd that he was made a scapegoat. I would hope that this doesn't happen to anyone else.”Lofgren has proposed legislation called "Aaron's Law" that would modify the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act -- which prohibits "having knowingly accessed a computer without authorization or exceeding authorized access" -- to modify what some have seen as the law's draconian punishments.

Apparently we can be bi-partisan about some things. As long as Obama and the House leadership aren't involved.

It has been proposed, not passed. I wouldn't get too excited about this yet. Current government has taken a very hard line against whistle blowers, leakers, and hackers.

He didn't hack anything. He wrote a script to download files that were free to download.

 

[bicycle_seat_sniffer]

http://www.latimes.com/news/nation/nationnow/la-na-nn-aaron-swartz-congressional-scrutiny-20130118,0,640020.story

House Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), who supported Swartz's opposition to the Stop Online Piracy Act in early 2012, said this week that he'd assigned an investigator to look into Swartz's case. He questioned the bargaining tactics commonly used by federal prosecutors to resolve cases before they reach trial.Ill make a risky statement here: Over-prosecution is a tool often used to get people to plead guilty rather than risk sentencing, Issa told the Huffington Post. It is a tool of question. If someone is genuinely guilty of something and you bring them up on charges, thats fine. But throw the book at them and find all kinds of charges and cobble them together so that theyll plea to a 'lesser included' is a technique that I think can sometimes be inappropriately used.Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-San Jose) told The Hill that she thought prosecutors' handling of the case was pretty outrageous," adding, Based on what I know, I think the Department of Justice was way out of line on the case.Rep. Jared Polis (D-Colo.), who sits on the House Judiciary Committee with Lofgren and Issa, also told The Hill, The charges were ridiculous and trumped-up. It's absurd that he was made a scapegoat. I would hope that this doesn't happen to anyone else.Lofgren has proposed legislation called "Aaron's Law" that would modify the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act -- which prohibits "having knowingly accessed a computer without authorization or exceeding authorized access" -- to modify what some have seen as the law's draconian punishments.

Apparently we can be bi-partisan about some things. As long as Obama and the House leadership aren't involved.

It has been proposed, not passed. I wouldn't get too excited about this yet. Current government has taken a very hard line against whistle blowers, leakers, and hackers.

He didn't hack anything. He wrote a script to download files that were free to download.

Not true at all. My cousin works for a company he hacked into big time. They host a site that contains journals for colleges for research.This dude thought that the info should be free, so he hacked them and got their data. The feds when after him and since he was facing lengthy jail time and fines, he whacked himself.Hackers suck

 

[Ilov80s]

http://www.latimes.com/news/nation/nationnow/la-na-nn-aaron-swartz-congressional-scrutiny-20130118,0,640020.story

House Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), who supported Swartz's opposition to the Stop Online Piracy Act in early 2012, said this week that he'd assigned an investigator to look into Swartz's case. He questioned the bargaining tactics commonly used by federal prosecutors to resolve cases before they reach trial.“I’ll make a risky statement here: Over-prosecution is a tool often used to get people to plead guilty rather than risk sentencing,” Issa told the Huffington Post. “It is a tool of question. If someone is genuinely guilty of something and you bring them up on charges, that’s fine. But throw the book at them and find all kinds of charges and cobble them together so that they’ll plea to a 'lesser included' is a technique that I think can sometimes be inappropriately used.”Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-San Jose) told The Hill that she thought prosecutors' handling of the case was “pretty outrageous," adding, “Based on what I know, I think the Department of Justice was way out of line on the case.”Rep. Jared Polis (D-Colo.), who sits on the House Judiciary Committee with Lofgren and Issa, also told The Hill, “The charges were ridiculous and trumped-up. It's absurd that he was made a scapegoat. I would hope that this doesn't happen to anyone else.”Lofgren has proposed legislation called "Aaron's Law" that would modify the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act -- which prohibits "having knowingly accessed a computer without authorization or exceeding authorized access" -- to modify what some have seen as the law's draconian punishments.

Apparently we can be bi-partisan about some things. As long as Obama and the House leadership aren't involved.

It has been proposed, not passed. I wouldn't get too excited about this yet. Current government has taken a very hard line against whistle blowers, leakers, and hackers.

He didn't hack anything. He wrote a script to download files that were free to download.

I know what he did. He had worked with Wikilinks and was was a hero in the anonymous community. That is guilt by association as far as the government is concerned. Of you look at Obama's record on this, his position is clear.

 

[Ilov80s]

http://www.latimes.com/news/nation/nationnow/la-na-nn-aaron-swartz-congressional-scrutiny-20130118,0,640020.story

House Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), who supported Swartz's opposition to the Stop Online Piracy Act in early 2012, said this week that he'd assigned an investigator to look into Swartz's case. He questioned the bargaining tactics commonly used by federal prosecutors to resolve cases before they reach trial.“I’ll make a risky statement here: Over-prosecution is a tool often used to get people to plead guilty rather than risk sentencing,” Issa told the Huffington Post. “It is a tool of question. If someone is genuinely guilty of something and you bring them up on charges, that’s fine. But throw the book at them and find all kinds of charges and cobble them together so that they’ll plea to a 'lesser included' is a technique that I think can sometimes be inappropriately used.”Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-San Jose) told The Hill that she thought prosecutors' handling of the case was “pretty outrageous," adding, “Based on what I know, I think the Department of Justice was way out of line on the case.”Rep. Jared Polis (D-Colo.), who sits on the House Judiciary Committee with Lofgren and Issa, also told The Hill, “The charges were ridiculous and trumped-up. It's absurd that he was made a scapegoat. I would hope that this doesn't happen to anyone else.”Lofgren has proposed legislation called "Aaron's Law" that would modify the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act -- which prohibits "having knowingly accessed a computer without authorization or exceeding authorized access" -- to modify what some have seen as the law's draconian punishments.

Apparently we can be bi-partisan about some things. As long as Obama and the House leadership aren't involved.

It has been proposed, not passed. I wouldn't get too excited about this yet. Current government has taken a very hard line against whistle blowers, leakers, and hackers.

He didn't hack anything. He wrote a script to download files that were free to download.

Not true at all. My cousin works for a company he hacked into big time. They host a site that contains journals for colleges for research.This dude thought that the info should be free, so he hacked them and got their data. The feds when after him and since he was facing lengthy jail time and fines, he whacked himself.Hackers suck

No, he did not hack and steal the research. He had legal free actress to it. It is what he did with that info that was the crime.

 

[Abraham]

I stand corrected if need be. I was under the impression that his criminal case centered on his downloading of articles from MiT, articles that are free.

 

[Ilov80s]

I stand corrected if need be. I was under the impression that his criminal case centered on his downloading of articles from MiT, articles that are free.

Correct, he worked at Harvatd and had access to them. He downloaded them and was planning to make them available for free in P4P networks.

 

[Abraham]

How is that criminal?

 

[wazoo11]

How is that criminal?

I don't know but 35 years in prison seems pretty asinine.

 

[Ilov80s]

How is that criminal?

This is why there is a lot of talk about clarifying the current laws. It was that he planned to distribute it. Kind of loving it is legal to rent a DVD from the public library, but would be illegal to distribute copies.

 

[SacramentoBob]

Pretty good article here by Jamie Boyle.

Interesting. If Orin Kerr doesn't think the prosecution was overzealous in this case, that says a lot to me.

 

[Abraham]

So he planned to commit a crime but didn't ?

 

[GroveDiesel]

I stand corrected if need be. I was under the impression that his criminal case centered on his downloading of articles from MiT, articles that are free.

Correct, he worked at Harvatd and had access to them. He downloaded them and was planning to make them available for free in P4P networks.

No he didn't. He didn't work for or attend a university where he had access. Furthermore, the terms of the usage agreement prohibited mass downloading.He broke into a data center closet where he had no authorization to be and plugged his laptop directly into the network to download and transfer files. This was after the college blocked him from accessing the files wirelessly.You can consider his actions as some sort of freedom of information activism, but it's clear that he knew what he was doing was against both the university and research service's wishes and terms of use. Part of being an activist is being willing to take the punishment if you get caught. The length of jail time is certainly ridiculous and heavy handed, but he wasn't innocent.There were very real costs to the university as well. When the service saw the huge number of articles being downloaded and the amount of bandwidth being used, they turned off the service to the entire university until they were able to track down the culprit and assure them the problem was taken care of. So dozens/hundreds of professors and researchers were locked out of critical research that they needed to do their jobs. Thousands of students were blocked from being able to access sources for school work. The denizens of the university suffered a very real harm thanks to his violations of the terms of the service.

 

[Ilov80s]

I stand corrected if need be. I was under the impression that his criminal case centered on his downloading of articles from MiT, articles that are free.

Correct, he worked at Harvatd and had access to them. He downloaded them and was planning to make them available for free in P4P networks.

No he didn't. He didn't work for or attend a university where he had access.

http://harvardmagazine.com/2013/01/rss-creator-aaron-swartz-dead-at-26

He was a Safra fellow studying ethics at Harvard’s Berkman Center for Internet & Society...Although Swartz had legal access to JSTOR through his Harvard affiliation, the indictment describes his use of an MIT guest account to download the articles, something he had no legal right to do. Swart

 

[SacramentoBob]

I stand corrected if need be. I was under the impression that his criminal case centered on his downloading of articles from MiT, articles that are free.

Correct, he worked at Harvatd and had access to them. He downloaded them and was planning to make them available for free in P4P networks.

No he didn't. He didn't work for or attend a university where he had access. Furthermore, the terms of the usage agreement prohibited mass downloading.He broke into a data center closet where he had no authorization to be and plugged his laptop directly into the network to download and transfer files. This was after the college blocked him from accessing the files wirelessly.You can consider his actions as some sort of freedom of information activism, but it's clear that he knew what he was doing was against both the university and research service's wishes and terms of use. Part of being an activist is being willing to take the punishment if you get caught. The length of jail time is certainly ridiculous and heavy handed, but he wasn't innocent.There were very real costs to the university as well. When the service saw the huge number of articles being downloaded and the amount of bandwidth being used, they turned off the service to the entire university until they were able to track down the culprit and assure them the problem was taken care of. So dozens/hundreds of professors and researchers were locked out of critical research that they needed to do their jobs. Thousands of students were blocked from being able to access sources for school work. The denizens of the university suffered a very real harm thanks to his violations of the terms of the service.

They have a ####ty network team if they can't figure out where the bandwidth hog is without shutting down the entire service. And the fact they had unused switchports that weren't administratively shutdown is a security no no.

 

[Maelstrom]

http://www.latimes.c...,0,640020.story

House Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), who supported Swartz's opposition to the Stop Online Piracy Act in early 2012, said this week that he'd assigned an investigator to look into Swartz's case. He questioned the bargaining tactics commonly used by federal prosecutors to resolve cases before they reach trial.

"I'll make a risky statement here: Over-prosecution is a tool often used to get people to plead guilty rather than risk sentencing," Issa told the Huffington Post. "It is a tool of question. If someone is genuinely guilty of something and you bring them up on charges, that's fine. But throw the book at them and find all kinds of charges and cobble them together so that they'll plea to a 'lesser included' is a technique that I think can sometimes be inappropriately used."

Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-San Jose) told The Hill that she thought prosecutors' handling of the case was "pretty outrageous," adding, "Based on what I know, I think the Department of Justice was way out of line on the case."

Rep. Jared Polis (D-Colo.), who sits on the House Judiciary Committee with Lofgren and Issa, also told The Hill, "The charges were ridiculous and trumped-up. It's absurd that he was made a scapegoat. I would hope that this doesn't happen to anyone else."

Lofgren has proposed legislation called "Aaron's Law" that would modify the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act -- which prohibits "having knowingly accessed a computer without authorization or exceeding authorized access" -- to modify what some have seen as the law's draconian punishments.

Apparently we can be bi-partisan about some things. As long as Obama and the House leadership aren't involved.

It has been proposed, not passed. I wouldn't get too excited about this yet. Current government has taken a very hard line against whistle blowers, leakers, and hackers.

He didn't hack anything. He wrote a script to download files that were free to download.

Not true at all. My cousin works for a company he hacked into big time. They host a site that contains journals for colleges for research.This dude thought that the info should be free, so he hacked them and got their data. The feds when after him and since he was facing lengthy jail time and fines, he whacked himself.

Hackers suck

No, he did not hack and steal the research. He had legal free actress to it. It is what the gov't says he was going to do with that info that was the crime.

Fixed the above - he didn't actually do anything with the files he downloaded.Was it wrong...sure, technically there is an argument that it was, by the letter of the law based on a very loose clause in a law written in the 80's that could be applied to anyone accessing a website in a way that violates that website's TOS.

Was it 35 years in jail wrong? Absolutely not. That is what is so troubling about this case, was the proposed punishment in no way fit the crime. He was obviously troubled beyond the case in question, but there is also little doubt that weighed really heavily on his mind.

 

[oso diablo]

DOJ admits prosecution was politically motivated - scathing blog post by Swartz's widow

 

[jonessed]

It sounds like he was overwhelmed by his mental illness. There was clearly a path out of this for him. It's very sad, but I don't believe this is all on the government. He knew he was engaging in illegal activity.

 

[Braktastic]

Sounds like he had the good sense to stop wasting the tax payers some money. :confetti:

 

[Sarnoff]

DOJ admits prosecution was politically motivated - scathing blog post by Swartz's widow

Wielding the legal system against people because of their political views is pretty much why people run for public office. Between that and being empowered to hand-pick the economic winners and losers (and thus helping your friends and crushing your enemies), there aren't any other incentives.And it's why people vote the way they do... so their "team" gets more wins and they get to see the other side lose.

 

[Gr00vus]

It sounds like he was overwhelmed by his mental illness. There was clearly a path out of this for him. It's very sad, but I don't believe this is all on the government. He knew he was engaging in illegal activity.

Even if he knew he was engaging in illegal activity, the punishments in no way were proportional to the alleged crime. His clear path out for downloading publicly available documents was spending time in federal prison. This is a huge government #### up.

 

[oso diablo]

DOJ admits prosecution was politically motivated - scathing blog post by Swartz's widow

Wielding the legal system against people because of their political views is pretty much why people run for public office. Between that and being empowered to hand-pick the economic winners and losers (and thus helping your friends and crushing your enemies), there aren't any other incentives.And it's why people vote the way they do... so their "team" gets more wins and they get to see the other side lose.

i hope i never get anywhere near this cynical, even though current events make it hard not to.

 

[Mario Kart]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nILqr8UlpPM

 

[Mario Kart]

I stand corrected if need be. I was under the impression that his criminal case centered on his downloading of articles from MiT, articles that are free.

Correct, he worked at Harvatd and had access to them. He downloaded them and was planning to make them available for free in P4P networks.

Speculation in the highest order.