13 ms·
Here's the JSTOR Statement related to the downloading incident: http://about.jstor.org/news/jstor-statement-misuse-incident-and-criminal-case http://about.jstor
by Claudus 14y ago
Here's the JSTOR Statement related to the downloading incident: http://about.jstor.org/news/jstor-statement-misuse-incident-and-criminal-case http://about.jstor.org/news/jstor-statement-misuse-incident-...
What Happened
Last fall and winter, JSTOR experienced a significant misuse of our database. A substantial portion of our publisher partners’ content was downloaded in an unauthorized fashion using the network at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, one of our participating institutions. The content taken was systematically downloaded using an approach designed to avoid detection by our monitoring systems.
The downloaded content included more than 4 million articles, book reviews, and other content from our publisher partners' academic journals and other publications; it did not include any personally identifying information about JSTOR users.
We stopped this downloading activity, and the individual responsible, Mr. Swartz, was identified. We secured from Mr. Swartz the content that was taken, and received confirmation that the content was not and would not be used, copied, transferred, or distributed.
The criminal investigation and today’s indictment of Mr. Swartz has been directed by the United States Attorney’s Office. It was the government’s decision whether to prosecute, not JSTOR’s. As noted previously, our interest was in securing the content. Once this was achieved, we had no interest in this becoming an ongoing legal matter.
- monsterix 14y agoCan we not know who exactly (their faces/names etc.) were the people working in the "US Attorney Office" bent to indict him? It's easy for people to term it was not JSTOR, it was the Attorney Office but ultimately these things happen only because people forget how to treat other people properly.
- natrius 14y agoThis question seems to imply that his death is the DOJ's fault, which I find preposterous.
- madaxe 14y agoYou do live in the land Kafka could only have lurid nightmares about, though.
- rdtsc 14y agoPresumably DOJ doesn't flip coins to decide which cases to handle as there is considerable time, money and other resources involved in each case. It would be interesting to know how much political and lobbying interests influence those prosecutions. I could not find anything of substance on this topic. JSTOR can of course officially deny everything, but other publishers, along with MPAA would probably have a vested interest in turning him into an example. Presumably, from what I had just read here, Aaron's political views wouldn't exactly been too popular with the US govt -- maybe this is just enough to put his case at the top of the stack.
- doktrin 14y ago> It would be interesting to know how much political and lobbying interests influence those prosecutions. Yes, it would be interesting to learn more about whatever behind the scenes machinations may have taken place here. Clearly, he was made an example of. I suspect, however, that the "who, why, how" will only much later - if ever - come to light.
- abrahamsen 14y agoKnowing the reddit community, do you really think that is a good idea?
- monsterix 14y agoI think it helps for the world to know.
- rdtsc 14y agoKnowing the faces and names deciding to spend our tax money on trying to shove in jail for decades someone who downloaded scientific papers, should be in the interest of every citizen, shouldn't it?
- natrius 14y agoCongress decides the range of punishments for breaking laws, not the Department of Justice. Congress is elected by the people. Instead of trying to identify individuals to indict, consider the role of 300 million Americans who implicitly backed those decisions. Or you could just take a step back to pause and lament the toll of depression.
- makomk 14y agoThe Department of Justice decides which people get pursued through the courts and which just get ignored. Its decisions have always been aimed at protecting the wealthy and influential no matter what.
- olefoo 14y ago"Knowing the reddit community" Could you elaborate on that?
- glass- 14y agoI believe they are referring to the reddit community's tendency to go off on misguided, half-cocked witch-hunts.
- philwelch 14y agoI'm not sure what you're getting at here. While I'll agree it was overzealous to make a federal case out of this, you can't blame federal prosecutors for doing their fucking jobs just because someone kills themselves. Many people have survived federal prosecution without dying or killing themselves. I'm shocked and horrified by this news too. It's awful that Aaron died. But it's foolish to blame anybody but him for his actions in this.
- petercooper 14y agoI mostly agree. But a potential 35 year prison sentence hanging over people for a white collar crime is sure to send a percentage of them over the edge. With a more realistic and efficient judicial system, people would be under a lot less unnecessary stress and there'd be fewer straws to break the proverbial camels' backs. Being threatened with 35 years in prison for what he did is indicative of a sick judicial system.
- rdl 14y agoI wouldn't even call it a 'white collar crime'. It was downloading some scientific papers, which the site didn't really care about. White collar crime is like Bernie Madoff.
- petercooper 14y agoTrue, I didn't realize white collar crime had a financial motivation. So, it was even less serious than that.
- rdl 14y agoWell, white collar just means generally "conducted using computers, paper, etc." vs. guns or sticks or fists. So defrauding people via the mail is white collar, or ponzi schemes, etc. There is usually a financial component, but the FBI 30k foot overview is "lying, cheating, or stealing". What aaronsw is alleged to have done was a white collar activity (except that he did sneaky wiring closet stuff), but not what people immediately think of as "white collar crime". I mostly don't believe what Aaron did was a crime at all. If it was wrong, it was a civil tort against JSTOR or JSTOR's authors, who declined to give a shit (and I suspect most authors in JSTOR would support him). If it was a crime, it was a very minor crime -- not a 35 year federal felony. I'm sad Aaron is gone, and angry he didn't fight this to the end. He probably could have won, or at least ended up with a suspended sentence or something like that, and this could have been a catalyst for reform of copyright laws (if not general laws, the scientific-papers-created-with-government-funding laws).
- jacques_chester 14y agoI can't speak for anyone else, but I'd just like to place on the record that if I die under similar circumstances, my wish is that nobody will start an ugly witch hunt in my name.
- deleted 14y ago[deleted]
- doktrin 14y agoWho are you referring to, exactly? The federal prosecutors? The division head? The attorney general? How do you plan to identify the parties bent on indicting him? You certainly can't assume the prosecutors took this on as some sort of personal crusade. Assuming you can identify the individuals most responsible, what do you plan to do to punish them for their actions? The implication of getting "names and faces" out in the public domain is potentially serious. I've seen this sentiment echoed variously up and down this thread, and it is scary. Inaction is not the appropriate response here, but neither is the public stoning you appear to be proposing.
- monsterix 14y agoHow is knowing their names and faces the same as public stoning, sir? I just don't understand what emotion led you to conclude that? We should always know who said what in the case. It's important to know who led the indictment, who pushed a criminal case instead of a civil suit and so on...
- rdl 14y agoCarmen M. Ortiz, US Attorney http://www.justice.gov/usao/ma/meetattorney.html http://www.justice.gov/usao/ma/meetattorney.html
- nullc 14y agoIt was Carmen Ortiz who was responsible for the unjust overzealous prosecution of Aaron Swartz which ultimately contributed to his death. Carmen Ortiz's blind ambition has caused her to run roughshod over people's freedom in the past: http://thephoenix.com/Boston/news/141253-15th-annual-muzzle-awards/?page=2#TOPCONTENT http://thephoenix.com/Boston/news/141253-15th-annual-muzzle-... We can only discourage the over-zealousness of prosecutors by making sure that it becomes a career limiting move instead of a career advancing one. Lessig was kind enough in his writeup to not name names: http://lessig.tumblr.com/post/40347463044/prosecutor-as-bully http://lessig.tumblr.com/post/40347463044/prosecutor-as-bull... but this kindness is both undeserved and unwise. Carmen thinks big convictions will get her a federal judgeship or other appointment. The public needs to make sure this isn't the case.
- nullc 14y agoAlso applicable: https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/remove-united-states-district-attorney-carmen-ortiz-office-overreach-case-aaron-swartz/RQNrG1Ck https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/remove-united-stat...