4 ms·

Ironic coming from an MIT blog. Do they remember that Aaron Swartz committed suicide after being arrested by MIT police for "pirating" PDFs from MIT's JSTOR?

FireBeyond 7y ago
"MIT police" is a misnomer. They were just police, assigned to MIT. MIT also declined to press charges for trespass when asked by police.
- eindiran 7y ago
  "MIT police" is absolutely not a misnomer: they are a civilian police force tied to the University, with their jurisdiction set to the bounds of MIT property.[0] Their website is a .mit.edu address.[1] Your second statement is misleading, in that MIT did not decline to press charges, they just declined to press charges with regard to criminal trespass and breaking-and-entering.[2] Interestingly, the MIT police arraigned Swartz on precisely those charges; it was only later that the charges under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act were used.[3] Further, MIT insisted on seeking time-behind-bars for Swartz! From the Wikipedia article for US v Aaron Swartz: 'Marty Weinberg [Swartz's lawyer] said he nearly negotiated a plea bargain in which Swartz would not serve any time. "JSTOR signed off on it," he said, "but MIT would not."'[4] So, all-in-all, I would say it is pretty ironic coming from an MIT blog. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Massachusetts_Institute_of_Technology_Police_Department https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Massachusetts_Institute_of_Tec... [1] https://police.mit.edu/ https://police.mit.edu/ [2] https://web.archive.org/web/20150912185122/https://www.politico.com/blogs/under-the-radar/2011/07/mit-also-pressing-charges-against-hacking-suspect-037709 https://web.archive.org/web/20150912185122/https://www.polit... [3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aaron_Swartz https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aaron_Swartz [4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_v._Swartz https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_v._Swartz
  - FireBeyond 7y ago
    What I said: > MIT also declined to press charges for trespass What you said: > they just declined to press charges with regard to criminal trespass and breaking-and-entering. Where is the misleading nature of what I said about pressing charges?
    - sushid 7y ago
      You’re technically right but it sounds like they went farther than just charging him for trespassing. You make it sound like they didn’t even charge him for trespassing.

FireBeyond 7y ago

"MIT police" is a misnomer. They were just police, assigned to MIT. MIT also declined to press charges for trespass when asked by police.

eindiran 7y ago
"MIT police" is absolutely not a misnomer: they are a civilian police force tied to the University, with their jurisdiction set to the bounds of MIT property.[0] Their website is a .mit.edu address.[1] Your second statement is misleading, in that MIT did not decline to press charges, they just declined to press charges with regard to criminal trespass and breaking-and-entering.[2] Interestingly, the MIT police arraigned Swartz on precisely those charges; it was only later that the charges under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act were used.[3] Further, MIT insisted on seeking time-behind-bars for Swartz! From the Wikipedia article for US v Aaron Swartz: 'Marty Weinberg [Swartz's lawyer] said he nearly negotiated a plea bargain in which Swartz would not serve any time. "JSTOR signed off on it," he said, "but MIT would not."'[4] So, all-in-all, I would say it is pretty ironic coming from an MIT blog. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Massachusetts_Institute_of_Technology_Police_Department https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Massachusetts_Institute_of_Tec... [1] https://police.mit.edu/ https://police.mit.edu/ [2] https://web.archive.org/web/20150912185122/https://www.politico.com/blogs/under-the-radar/2011/07/mit-also-pressing-charges-against-hacking-suspect-037709 https://web.archive.org/web/20150912185122/https://www.polit... [3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aaron_Swartz https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aaron_Swartz [4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_v._Swartz https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_v._Swartz
- FireBeyond 7y ago
  What I said: > MIT also declined to press charges for trespass What you said: > they just declined to press charges with regard to criminal trespass and breaking-and-entering. Where is the misleading nature of what I said about pressing charges?
  - sushid 7y ago
    You’re technically right but it sounds like they went farther than just charging him for trespassing. You make it sound like they didn’t even charge him for trespassing.