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1/13 noon at MIT: Protest wrongful prosecution of Aaron Swartz

469 points by hendler 14y ago

hendler 14y ago
Via https://twitter.com/yarnivore/status/290289294835318784 https://twitter.com/yarnivore/status/290289294835318784
- hendler 14y ago
  https://twitter.com/aigeanta/status/290285112707399680 https://twitter.com/aigeanta/status/290285112707399680
adamnemecek 14y ago
How ironic that this did not happen when it could have made a difference.
- Cushman 14y ago
  Presumably the protest is intended to help ensure that his death does make a difference.
  - adamnemecek 14y ago
    By difference I of course mean Aaron not having killed himself.
    - Cushman 14y ago
      And I mean that it's not ironic to try to make the best of a bad situation.
- deleted 14y ago
  [deleted]
- javajosh 14y ago
  I was about to post something along the lines of, "And to all those people about to post something about how useless this is, STFU." It's not useless, and it will make a difference. Aaron's memory is important, and acknowledging the gross injustice that lead to his death is important. A protest will send a clear signal that we are aware of the governments tendency to overreach, and that we, the people, will stand for it. So STFU.
  - arcatek 14y ago
    He is not saying that it is useless. He is just saying that it would have probably been far more useful to do it while he was still alive, which is sadly true. Being said, I agree that's it's a nice move.
    - adamnemecek 14y ago
      Yeah, that is what I was trying to say. Nice gesture, sure. At the same time, I can't help but feel that it is a bit reactionary. As if it was only Aaron's suicide that made people realize that it was a gross injustice and had he not killed himself, no one would have cared.
      - doktrin 14y ago
        In fairness, a lot of fairly important details did not surface until today. It was an active case, after all. It is true that a lot of the will to act has come from the catalyst of Aaron's death, but the facts were not as clearly available before (IMO). Edit : I should add that I believe there would have been a meaningful backlash had he for some reason lost his criminal case and been sentenced to (n > 3) years in federal prison. In hindsight, there was a great deal of empathy to be shown to an individual who was being financially and emotionally drained by the legal system. However, that's the sort of stuff that doesn't readily occur to most people (myself included).
- danso 14y ago
  One thing I wish Aaron had done while he was alive was be as diligent as rallying support for himself as he did for the anti-SOPA efforts. For civic-minded people, it's almost always easier to drum up support for a cause than for yourself...still...had he been relentless -- he could've posted bimonthly updates on the case and made the top of HN, Reddit, BoingBoing, etc -- all of us would've had his case near the top of our minds. As it is, I can't be the only one who hadn't thought about JSTOR in awhile, and had assumed that his defense (given his skills and his alliances) was going as well as it possibly could. A Redditor started the campaign to raise $700K for the bullied bus driver. How easily that could've been raised for Aaron http://www.columbiatribune.com/wire/bullied-bus-driver-fund-has-more-than/article_74f0956c-f3a7-511f-b569-5b26b4bc006a.html http://www.columbiatribune.com/wire/bullied-bus-driver-fund-...
MIT_Hacker 14y ago
As an MIT undergraduate, I will be there
- droithomme 14y ago
  Have you considered disenrolling? Based on what has come out that this entire case has been pushed by MIT officials and JSTOR was opposed to it, affiliation with MIT right now, even as a student, looks to me like affiliation with the Nazi youth. Financial support of MIT through tuition looks like support of what is a terrorist organization.
  - i_cannot_hack 14y ago
    > affiliation with MIT right now, even as a student, looks to me like affiliation with the Nazi youth Take a break. Hyperbole and strange exaggerations won't solve anything.
    - droithomme 14y ago
      There is no hyperbole here. People who voluntarily affiliated with the Nazis suffered a permanent black mark on their reputations, even when they were not aware of what was going on at the time. Those who, after the extent of their evil actions were known, continued to choose to be affiliated with them, were considered exceptionally vile. Those retaining voluntary affiliation with MIT after these events are vile. I choose, as a matter of personal morality, going forward to have nothing but disgust towards them and will not cooperate or affiliate with them anymore than I would with Neo-Nazi Skinheads. Those who had affiliation with MIT in the past, such as graduated students, provided they disavow all connection or affiliation with this organization might be redeemed, just as Nazi youth who have since disavowed their affiliation have become tolerable. The affiliation though will always be a black mark on someone's record regardless of whether they knew the details of the evil committed by their organization.
      - milkshakes 14y ago
        > There is no hyperbole here. > I choose, as a matter of personal morality, going forward to have nothing but disgust towards them and will not cooperate or affiliate with them anymore than I would with Neo-Nazi Skinheads.
nerdfiles 14y ago
I don't understand. I've downloaded articles from JSTOR, Project Muse, books on top of books, and am publicly re-hosting them through my own Dropbox, which I publicly link to on my own Website. Maybe I'm missing something here. Was he made an example? Is this the fundamental nature of the protest and the outrage, that we perceive that he was made an example of, that we are aware, and that it is unfair, in some essential way, for them to target leaders who are no less perpetrators than the rest of us? Because we do that to them when BoingBoing or Anons cry to bring down or apply heat to CNN or pundits. I'm not playing devil's advocate, but I'm trying to understand the nature of the protest. I believe these questions can be fairly asked about [the protest] without counting as some sort of insincerity toward Mr. Schwartz.
- AnthonyMouse 14y ago
  If I had to name the cause of the outrage, it is that the charges were so disproportional to the alleged offense that it drove a good man to suicide. If he had been charged with an offense for which the penalty was proportionate to what he is alleged to have done, e.g. a misdemeanor with a $500 fine or a fortnight in jail, I have to imagine that there would be very little protesting going on, and for that matter that he would still be alive. But they decided they had to break him, and they did, so here we are.
  - nerdfiles 14y ago
    I'm just going to state this, as statefully as I can, without trying to be sensationalist. Everyone I come across these days insist on calling me "schizophrenic" or "paranoid" or what have you: But "Marshall Law", as I understand it, is _more or less_ in effect, and a lot of people are talking about Obama's UAVs and whatever it is they do. (I know it was repealed. But you get what I mean. We're all consuming roughly the same information; so can we just bootstrap past the facts, please? I don't want to play semantics, pedantics, or any kind of fact-checking game.) So I must ask: Is this a civil war? When do we call it that? 100 years ago, it meant having a militia or something of that order. Now we all play slapstick at our keyboards and write "modules" and pentests. Is it possible to call a spade a spade? I'm asking seriously here. Every week I have to stop and ask myself, "Should I read the news? Will there be another episode or thread of death that I'll have to keep track of on account of something our government did?" I really do appreciate Mr. Schwartz efforts and work. But this country is taking heavy demoralizing blows every week. Beating someone down who isn't trained or prepared to fight is a different matter from beating down leaders, ideologues, activitists, and fighters. It seems like this country, our communities, are being served heavy blows, in much the same way the U.S. demoralizes the "Middle East" with its extended arm of Social/Big Media.
ck2 14y ago
We cannot see into Aaron's thoughts of course but if I had to guess, maybe he thought he was going to be Bradley Manning-inged which might drive anyone over the edge. Stripped naked and thrown into a cell 23-hours a day "for his protection" (he got a whopping 100 days off his 30 years to life sentence for that abuse btw, so that will teach the people that did that right?) Perhaps we should use this energy to help the living Bradley Manning in protest as it does little to help Aaron or his loved ones now.
deleted 14y ago
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- untog 14y ago
  I want to take this opportunity to talk about myself. And to those who might say that I'm using Aaron's death to further my self promotion, show me a post where he says I'm not awesome. ..you need to look up the definition of "burden of proof", possibly in conjunction with "social norms".
  - deleted 14y ago
    [deleted]
  - polarix 14y ago
    Erm, this sounded more to me like: people who are frustrated he was persecuted, come here to figure out how to take action on his beliefs which we share. Bad wording to be sure but the spirit was healthy.
    - nerdfiles 14y ago
      "...beliefs which we share." When I look at the most ubiquitous photo of Mr. Schwartz ( this one: http://memex.naughtons.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/Aaron_Swartz_profile.jpg http://memex.naughtons.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/Aaron_... ), and I see that smile... I sincerely do feel that "sharing beliefs" is an understatement. I know that smile. That is my smile. I make it often. And perhaps many others do too. It's when I know I have no other business being exactly where I am except for the fact that I'm right. I did not know him personally, yet I benefited personally from his mind, such that many of my projects were successful because I started mouthing off ideas that depended on RSS. What if you collaborated with Newton? Spinoza? Even that fat bastard Leibniz? Huygens? Popper? Russell? Whitehead? What if you slogged through those theorems, or those symbols, or those programs? Did you simply "share beliefs"? What about those times, for brevity, you had to assume, at least in some partial, pseudometaphysical way, assume the identity of that author, and speak as if you were them, for clarity, gusto and confidence? I cannot fully fathom these feelings, but even that "they took our kin from us" is an understatement. We are building something here. An Architect of the Web was given no light to see, given no capacity to imagine his work come to fruition. There's more than belief sharing going on. "Sharing is caring" but that doesn't quite get at the right picture.
TimSchumann 14y ago
Not to rain on anyone's parade or anything, but this might be more poignant on a weekday, when individuals meant to see said protest are actually at work. That being said It's a great idea and I wish I could be there.
Argentum01 14y ago
I happen to be flying there the day after tomorrow. I just checked and there are no earlier flights that I could take. Is there anything further planned that you're aware of?
deleted 14y ago
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deleted 14y ago
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anoncow 14y ago
How about boycotting MIT - the institution.
- droithomme 14y ago
  Personally, I am now doing so. I will no longer cooperate with or work with individuals who maintain affiliation with this fascist organization. MIT should be shut down and its assets sold.
  - gfodor 14y ago
    Jesus give it a rest you are not helping
    - droithomme 14y ago
      Support killers if you want. I choose not to.
- sp332 14y ago
  I thought MIT was only going after Aaron because JSTOR was threatening to cut off their access if they didn't stop him?
xijuan 14y ago
I also wish I could be there!!! I almost had the impulse to book a flight and go down there to join the protest! Thank you for organizing this!!
robomartin 14y ago
I've been taking all of this in trying to both formulate a reasonably valid mental framework to understand and, yes, be able to personally judge or form an opinion about this entire story. Not an easy task when you don't have direct knowledge of the facts and the people involved and, to make matters worst, morons add noise to the wire. To say that this is a catastrophe at many levels is an understatement. This should not have happened. While I did not personally know Aaron I have lost at least one good friend to the pressures and stresses of running a business and colliding with the legal system. I've seen it happen right in front of my eyes. These things are not worth a person's life. Of course, we have a natural "who done it?" attitude and now want to find someone to blame for his untimely death. At some level you do have to blame him. No, not for downloading files but rather for making the decision to end his life. Nobody but him made that decision. I have suffered enough in business to actually understand how a person can get there, how, before you know it, mental stress and anguish walks you right up to the edge of that precipice. And, once there, only an external force can keep you from jumping off. In my case this "non-mascable interrupt" were my kids. I know they saved my life, even though they had no clue they were doing so. I can't even guess as to why this young and brilliant man did not have someone to pull him away from the edge. And so, as much as one can blame Aaron for taking his own life, it also took external forces to cause him to walk to the edge of the precipice. Sadly, it seems, these forces originated with actions taken by MIT and were amplified by the DOJ. I find myself strangely contemplating the idea that, perhaps, just perhaps, pro-gun extremists who believe the government is out to get us might know something that we don't. But I digress. Who done it? Well, MIT and DOJ. At least that's how I read it. I also think JSTOR is at fault, even though they seem to be washing their hands. Negligence through inaction. Can anything make this right? Well, not really. You can't replace a life. Yet, the part of me that always wants both sides of an equation to balance has been searching for something that might at least make this horrible event make some sense. I love MIT, but I get the horrible feeling that they fucked up in a big way. Admittedly I have formed this opinion without direct access to the facts. I have to concede at least that to be fair. Still, one idea keeps circling around in my head and I just had to come here and put it out there: JSTOR can no-longer exist. MIT, needs to acquire JSTOR, release all content to the public domain and disband the organization. MIT, shouldn't even have direct control of this data. perhaps it should be handed over to Wikipedia for dissemination (along with the requisite financial support). If it is true that MIT initiated this and they, along with JSTOR, could have made tons of noise to pull back the DOJ, they really need to engage in deep introspection in order to make sure this never happens again. And they need to make JSTOR ancient history. If, despite their substantial financials, this acquisition is beyond their capabilities industry giants such as Apple and Google need to intervene. One of the best ways I can think of honoring Aaron's memory is for this data to be free for anyone, anywhere, to access. RIP
sirwanimayur 14y ago
Long live the legend,
alan_cx 14y ago
Just for Aaron? Oh man, what about every one else? US law is insane, hurting too many people to list. Mostly, Americans, but also world citizens who don't even get to vote in the US. You need to deal with law its self, not this one single individual. Not just the law, but I suspect your entire value system. I had sympathy yesterday, but this is turning in to hero martyr worship. Its getting ridiculous. Step back and think. Form a proper long term strategy. Think about Kim Dotcom, Bradley, the British bloke you chaps tried to get, copyright stuff, patent stuff, hell, think about damn drone strikes which I assume will begin to happen in the US eventually. Look at the lot of it in this blokes name, not just one tiny insignificant part of it. Most of all think about the relationship between government and ...... YOU. Its supposed to be YOUR government. I get the grief, but if all you can think of is this one single case, then expect the world to be a better place you are deluding your selves. Those Wall Street protests amounted to nothing what so ever, which means you have to do much better than them. Think about it. As say this because I want American people, the intelligent, considered, sensitive people I read here to win their country back. When it costs $1.5m to prove your innocence you no longer have any right to the word "democracy", less right to point fingers at other countries. Come on America, be the people the rest of us hope you really are.
- danso 14y ago
  The Wall Street Protests failed, because among other things, they had too many vague, overarching goals with no end plan. And so now with Swartz's death, people have a human face to put on the failures of our justice system...and you want to berate them for not being strategic enough?
  - wavesounds 14y ago
    OWS was an overwhelming success, it got the country talking and many of their ideas were implemented, like increasing taxes on the top 1%. Aarons death can also be a catalyst for change and I think a cause OWS would be interested in supporting as well.
    - danso 14y ago
ernestipark 14y ago
I've been having a tough time tracking down more information on this so I'll ask here. What exactly did MIT do (or not do) that people want to protest? Is it that MIT pursued legal action, or did not try and help Swartz out?
- jameskilton 14y ago
  30 years in prison and up to $1 million in fines for downloading files publicly accessible to anyone in the MIT network. This is the proverbial straw that's getting people to realize and understand just how fucked up the law is when it comes to digital "crimes".
dmix 14y ago
Is there a livestream?
nvartolomei 14y ago
It's really sad, I'm younger than Aaron and he was like an example of a white hat hacker, great example. It's sad that people started to protest after his death, hey, where you'we been before? Had anyone imaged that Aaron decided to suicede just to wake people up, he did so many great things and was so altruistic for to internet freedom that this could be a real scenario... RIP
BenoitEssiambre 14y ago
I have been digesting this news for a day and even though Aaron was a complete stranger to me, I can't remember feeling outrage this persistent in my entire life. This was an attack on freedom not carried out by a confused and brainwashed group of people desperate for their lives due to living in an impoverished country or warzone. It was an organised attack, meant to ruin a person's life and deter anyone who wants to fight for information freedom, coordinated by well off, educated people who made conscious choices, had access to all the facts, were reminded repeatedly by the media how ridiculous and immoral their actions were and did it all for the political and financial benefit of special interests and the serfdom of everyone else. These people were informed, they had to know how malevolent they were acting towards Aaron and those who try to maintain freedom and democracy in the digital world. They were aware and still chose to try to ruin his life even though he was clearly acting entirely in the interest of others and doing it in a manner that was civil and non violent. They did it just because he was smarter than most and thus a greater threat to entrenched powers. The level of evil here is truly off the scale. The fact that it resulted in his death is just... I'm at a loss for words. And they call themselves department of justice.
- chknofthescene 14y ago
  I couldn't have put it better. Aaron was a stranger to me as well, but I feel the deepest of grief for him. And for our society.
- drats 14y ago
  This is an excellent explanation of the core outrage in this case. I can't believe there are people in other threads attempting to excuse the actions of the prosecutors. The publisher dropped the case, there should have only been a pursuit for a minor ~30 day tresspass sentence if MIT specifically requested it.
- damon_c 14y ago
  And they act on our (Americans) behalf and are funded by our tax dollars.
btilly 14y ago
Hopefully they bring up the petition to dismiss the prosecutor in this case. 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... Already about a fifth of the way there.
Fice 14y ago
It is not just wrongful prosecution that leads one to depression. The much harder thing is the feeling of lack of support. We should have been protesting when Aaron was alive, it's too late now. We are to blame for his death, and we should make a lesson out of it.

469 points by hendler 14y ago

hendler 14y ago

Via https://twitter.com/yarnivore/status/290289294835318784 https://twitter.com/yarnivore/status/290289294835318784

hendler 14y ago
https://twitter.com/aigeanta/status/290285112707399680 https://twitter.com/aigeanta/status/290285112707399680

adamnemecek 14y ago

How ironic that this did not happen when it could have made a difference.

Cushman 14y ago
Presumably the protest is intended to help ensure that his death does make a difference.
- adamnemecek 14y ago
  By difference I of course mean Aaron not having killed himself.
  - Cushman 14y ago
    And I mean that it's not ironic to try to make the best of a bad situation.
deleted 14y ago
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javajosh 14y ago
I was about to post something along the lines of, "And to all those people about to post something about how useless this is, STFU." It's not useless, and it will make a difference. Aaron's memory is important, and acknowledging the gross injustice that lead to his death is important. A protest will send a clear signal that we are aware of the governments tendency to overreach, and that we, the people, will stand for it. So STFU.
- arcatek 14y ago
  He is not saying that it is useless. He is just saying that it would have probably been far more useful to do it while he was still alive, which is sadly true. Being said, I agree that's it's a nice move.
  - adamnemecek 14y ago
    Yeah, that is what I was trying to say. Nice gesture, sure. At the same time, I can't help but feel that it is a bit reactionary. As if it was only Aaron's suicide that made people realize that it was a gross injustice and had he not killed himself, no one would have cared.
    - doktrin 14y ago
      In fairness, a lot of fairly important details did not surface until today. It was an active case, after all. It is true that a lot of the will to act has come from the catalyst of Aaron's death, but the facts were not as clearly available before (IMO). Edit : I should add that I believe there would have been a meaningful backlash had he for some reason lost his criminal case and been sentenced to (n > 3) years in federal prison. In hindsight, there was a great deal of empathy to be shown to an individual who was being financially and emotionally drained by the legal system. However, that's the sort of stuff that doesn't readily occur to most people (myself included).
danso 14y ago
One thing I wish Aaron had done while he was alive was be as diligent as rallying support for himself as he did for the anti-SOPA efforts. For civic-minded people, it's almost always easier to drum up support for a cause than for yourself...still...had he been relentless -- he could've posted bimonthly updates on the case and made the top of HN, Reddit, BoingBoing, etc -- all of us would've had his case near the top of our minds. As it is, I can't be the only one who hadn't thought about JSTOR in awhile, and had assumed that his defense (given his skills and his alliances) was going as well as it possibly could. A Redditor started the campaign to raise $700K for the bullied bus driver. How easily that could've been raised for Aaron http://www.columbiatribune.com/wire/bullied-bus-driver-fund-has-more-than/article_74f0956c-f3a7-511f-b569-5b26b4bc006a.html http://www.columbiatribune.com/wire/bullied-bus-driver-fund-...

MIT_Hacker 14y ago

As an MIT undergraduate, I will be there

droithomme 14y ago
Have you considered disenrolling? Based on what has come out that this entire case has been pushed by MIT officials and JSTOR was opposed to it, affiliation with MIT right now, even as a student, looks to me like affiliation with the Nazi youth. Financial support of MIT through tuition looks like support of what is a terrorist organization.
- i_cannot_hack 14y ago
  > affiliation with MIT right now, even as a student, looks to me like affiliation with the Nazi youth Take a break. Hyperbole and strange exaggerations won't solve anything.
  - droithomme 14y ago
    There is no hyperbole here. People who voluntarily affiliated with the Nazis suffered a permanent black mark on their reputations, even when they were not aware of what was going on at the time. Those who, after the extent of their evil actions were known, continued to choose to be affiliated with them, were considered exceptionally vile. Those retaining voluntary affiliation with MIT after these events are vile. I choose, as a matter of personal morality, going forward to have nothing but disgust towards them and will not cooperate or affiliate with them anymore than I would with Neo-Nazi Skinheads. Those who had affiliation with MIT in the past, such as graduated students, provided they disavow all connection or affiliation with this organization might be redeemed, just as Nazi youth who have since disavowed their affiliation have become tolerable. The affiliation though will always be a black mark on someone's record regardless of whether they knew the details of the evil committed by their organization.
    - milkshakes 14y ago
      > There is no hyperbole here. > I choose, as a matter of personal morality, going forward to have nothing but disgust towards them and will not cooperate or affiliate with them anymore than I would with Neo-Nazi Skinheads.

nerdfiles 14y ago

I don't understand. I've downloaded articles from JSTOR, Project Muse, books on top of books, and am publicly re-hosting them through my own Dropbox, which I publicly link to on my own Website. Maybe I'm missing something here. Was he made an example? Is this the fundamental nature of the protest and the outrage, that we perceive that he was made an example of, that we are aware, and that it is unfair, in some essential way, for them to target leaders who are no less perpetrators than the rest of us? Because we do that to them when BoingBoing or Anons cry to bring down or apply heat to CNN or pundits. I'm not playing devil's advocate, but I'm trying to understand the nature of the protest. I believe these questions can be fairly asked about [the protest] without counting as some sort of insincerity toward Mr. Schwartz.

AnthonyMouse 14y ago
If I had to name the cause of the outrage, it is that the charges were so disproportional to the alleged offense that it drove a good man to suicide. If he had been charged with an offense for which the penalty was proportionate to what he is alleged to have done, e.g. a misdemeanor with a $500 fine or a fortnight in jail, I have to imagine that there would be very little protesting going on, and for that matter that he would still be alive. But they decided they had to break him, and they did, so here we are.
- nerdfiles 14y ago
  I'm just going to state this, as statefully as I can, without trying to be sensationalist. Everyone I come across these days insist on calling me "schizophrenic" or "paranoid" or what have you: But "Marshall Law", as I understand it, is _more or less_ in effect, and a lot of people are talking about Obama's UAVs and whatever it is they do. (I know it was repealed. But you get what I mean. We're all consuming roughly the same information; so can we just bootstrap past the facts, please? I don't want to play semantics, pedantics, or any kind of fact-checking game.) So I must ask: Is this a civil war? When do we call it that? 100 years ago, it meant having a militia or something of that order. Now we all play slapstick at our keyboards and write "modules" and pentests. Is it possible to call a spade a spade? I'm asking seriously here. Every week I have to stop and ask myself, "Should I read the news? Will there be another episode or thread of death that I'll have to keep track of on account of something our government did?" I really do appreciate Mr. Schwartz efforts and work. But this country is taking heavy demoralizing blows every week. Beating someone down who isn't trained or prepared to fight is a different matter from beating down leaders, ideologues, activitists, and fighters. It seems like this country, our communities, are being served heavy blows, in much the same way the U.S. demoralizes the "Middle East" with its extended arm of Social/Big Media.

ck2 14y ago

We cannot see into Aaron's thoughts of course but if I had to guess, maybe he thought he was going to be Bradley Manning-inged which might drive anyone over the edge. Stripped naked and thrown into a cell 23-hours a day "for his protection" (he got a whopping 100 days off his 30 years to life sentence for that abuse btw, so that will teach the people that did that right?) Perhaps we should use this energy to help the living Bradley Manning in protest as it does little to help Aaron or his loved ones now.

deleted 14y ago

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untog 14y ago
I want to take this opportunity to talk about myself. And to those who might say that I'm using Aaron's death to further my self promotion, show me a post where he says I'm not awesome. ..you need to look up the definition of "burden of proof", possibly in conjunction with "social norms".
- deleted 14y ago
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- polarix 14y ago
  Erm, this sounded more to me like: people who are frustrated he was persecuted, come here to figure out how to take action on his beliefs which we share. Bad wording to be sure but the spirit was healthy.
  - nerdfiles 14y ago
    "...beliefs which we share." When I look at the most ubiquitous photo of Mr. Schwartz ( this one: http://memex.naughtons.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/Aaron_Swartz_profile.jpg http://memex.naughtons.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/Aaron_... ), and I see that smile... I sincerely do feel that "sharing beliefs" is an understatement. I know that smile. That is my smile. I make it often. And perhaps many others do too. It's when I know I have no other business being exactly where I am except for the fact that I'm right. I did not know him personally, yet I benefited personally from his mind, such that many of my projects were successful because I started mouthing off ideas that depended on RSS. What if you collaborated with Newton? Spinoza? Even that fat bastard Leibniz? Huygens? Popper? Russell? Whitehead? What if you slogged through those theorems, or those symbols, or those programs? Did you simply "share beliefs"? What about those times, for brevity, you had to assume, at least in some partial, pseudometaphysical way, assume the identity of that author, and speak as if you were them, for clarity, gusto and confidence? I cannot fully fathom these feelings, but even that "they took our kin from us" is an understatement. We are building something here. An Architect of the Web was given no light to see, given no capacity to imagine his work come to fruition. There's more than belief sharing going on. "Sharing is caring" but that doesn't quite get at the right picture.

TimSchumann 14y ago

Not to rain on anyone's parade or anything, but this might be more poignant on a weekday, when individuals meant to see said protest are actually at work. That being said It's a great idea and I wish I could be there.

Argentum01 14y ago

I happen to be flying there the day after tomorrow. I just checked and there are no earlier flights that I could take. Is there anything further planned that you're aware of?

deleted 14y ago

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anoncow 14y ago

How about boycotting MIT - the institution.

droithomme 14y ago
Personally, I am now doing so. I will no longer cooperate with or work with individuals who maintain affiliation with this fascist organization. MIT should be shut down and its assets sold.
- gfodor 14y ago
  Jesus give it a rest you are not helping
  - droithomme 14y ago
    Support killers if you want. I choose not to.
sp332 14y ago
I thought MIT was only going after Aaron because JSTOR was threatening to cut off their access if they didn't stop him?

xijuan 14y ago

I also wish I could be there!!! I almost had the impulse to book a flight and go down there to join the protest! Thank you for organizing this!!

robomartin 14y ago

I've been taking all of this in trying to both formulate a reasonably valid mental framework to understand and, yes, be able to personally judge or form an opinion about this entire story. Not an easy task when you don't have direct knowledge of the facts and the people involved and, to make matters worst, morons add noise to the wire. To say that this is a catastrophe at many levels is an understatement. This should not have happened. While I did not personally know Aaron I have lost at least one good friend to the pressures and stresses of running a business and colliding with the legal system. I've seen it happen right in front of my eyes. These things are not worth a person's life. Of course, we have a natural "who done it?" attitude and now want to find someone to blame for his untimely death. At some level you do have to blame him. No, not for downloading files but rather for making the decision to end his life. Nobody but him made that decision. I have suffered enough in business to actually understand how a person can get there, how, before you know it, mental stress and anguish walks you right up to the edge of that precipice. And, once there, only an external force can keep you from jumping off. In my case this "non-mascable interrupt" were my kids. I know they saved my life, even though they had no clue they were doing so. I can't even guess as to why this young and brilliant man did not have someone to pull him away from the edge. And so, as much as one can blame Aaron for taking his own life, it also took external forces to cause him to walk to the edge of the precipice. Sadly, it seems, these forces originated with actions taken by MIT and were amplified by the DOJ. I find myself strangely contemplating the idea that, perhaps, just perhaps, pro-gun extremists who believe the government is out to get us might know something that we don't. But I digress. Who done it? Well, MIT and DOJ. At least that's how I read it. I also think JSTOR is at fault, even though they seem to be washing their hands. Negligence through inaction. Can anything make this right? Well, not really. You can't replace a life. Yet, the part of me that always wants both sides of an equation to balance has been searching for something that might at least make this horrible event make some sense. I love MIT, but I get the horrible feeling that they fucked up in a big way. Admittedly I have formed this opinion without direct access to the facts. I have to concede at least that to be fair. Still, one idea keeps circling around in my head and I just had to come here and put it out there: JSTOR can no-longer exist. MIT, needs to acquire JSTOR, release all content to the public domain and disband the organization. MIT, shouldn't even have direct control of this data. perhaps it should be handed over to Wikipedia for dissemination (along with the requisite financial support). If it is true that MIT initiated this and they, along with JSTOR, could have made tons of noise to pull back the DOJ, they really need to engage in deep introspection in order to make sure this never happens again. And they need to make JSTOR ancient history. If, despite their substantial financials, this acquisition is beyond their capabilities industry giants such as Apple and Google need to intervene. One of the best ways I can think of honoring Aaron's memory is for this data to be free for anyone, anywhere, to access. RIP

sirwanimayur 14y ago

Long live the legend,

alan_cx 14y ago

Just for Aaron? Oh man, what about every one else? US law is insane, hurting too many people to list. Mostly, Americans, but also world citizens who don't even get to vote in the US. You need to deal with law its self, not this one single individual. Not just the law, but I suspect your entire value system. I had sympathy yesterday, but this is turning in to hero martyr worship. Its getting ridiculous. Step back and think. Form a proper long term strategy. Think about Kim Dotcom, Bradley, the British bloke you chaps tried to get, copyright stuff, patent stuff, hell, think about damn drone strikes which I assume will begin to happen in the US eventually. Look at the lot of it in this blokes name, not just one tiny insignificant part of it. Most of all think about the relationship between government and ...... YOU. Its supposed to be YOUR government. I get the grief, but if all you can think of is this one single case, then expect the world to be a better place you are deluding your selves. Those Wall Street protests amounted to nothing what so ever, which means you have to do much better than them. Think about it. As say this because I want American people, the intelligent, considered, sensitive people I read here to win their country back. When it costs $1.5m to prove your innocence you no longer have any right to the word "democracy", less right to point fingers at other countries. Come on America, be the people the rest of us hope you really are.

danso 14y ago
The Wall Street Protests failed, because among other things, they had too many vague, overarching goals with no end plan. And so now with Swartz's death, people have a human face to put on the failures of our justice system...and you want to berate them for not being strategic enough?
- wavesounds 14y ago
  OWS was an overwhelming success, it got the country talking and many of their ideas were implemented, like increasing taxes on the top 1%. Aarons death can also be a catalyst for change and I think a cause OWS would be interested in supporting as well.
  - danso 14y ago

ernestipark 14y ago

I've been having a tough time tracking down more information on this so I'll ask here. What exactly did MIT do (or not do) that people want to protest? Is it that MIT pursued legal action, or did not try and help Swartz out?

jameskilton 14y ago
30 years in prison and up to $1 million in fines for downloading files publicly accessible to anyone in the MIT network. This is the proverbial straw that's getting people to realize and understand just how fucked up the law is when it comes to digital "crimes".

dmix 14y ago

Is there a livestream?

nvartolomei 14y ago

It's really sad, I'm younger than Aaron and he was like an example of a white hat hacker, great example. It's sad that people started to protest after his death, hey, where you'we been before? Had anyone imaged that Aaron decided to suicede just to wake people up, he did so many great things and was so altruistic for to internet freedom that this could be a real scenario... RIP

BenoitEssiambre 14y ago

I have been digesting this news for a day and even though Aaron was a complete stranger to me, I can't remember feeling outrage this persistent in my entire life. This was an attack on freedom not carried out by a confused and brainwashed group of people desperate for their lives due to living in an impoverished country or warzone. It was an organised attack, meant to ruin a person's life and deter anyone who wants to fight for information freedom, coordinated by well off, educated people who made conscious choices, had access to all the facts, were reminded repeatedly by the media how ridiculous and immoral their actions were and did it all for the political and financial benefit of special interests and the serfdom of everyone else. These people were informed, they had to know how malevolent they were acting towards Aaron and those who try to maintain freedom and democracy in the digital world. They were aware and still chose to try to ruin his life even though he was clearly acting entirely in the interest of others and doing it in a manner that was civil and non violent. They did it just because he was smarter than most and thus a greater threat to entrenched powers. The level of evil here is truly off the scale. The fact that it resulted in his death is just... I'm at a loss for words. And they call themselves department of justice.

chknofthescene 14y ago
I couldn't have put it better. Aaron was a stranger to me as well, but I feel the deepest of grief for him. And for our society.
drats 14y ago
This is an excellent explanation of the core outrage in this case. I can't believe there are people in other threads attempting to excuse the actions of the prosecutors. The publisher dropped the case, there should have only been a pursuit for a minor ~30 day tresspass sentence if MIT specifically requested it.
damon_c 14y ago
And they act on our (Americans) behalf and are funded by our tax dollars.

btilly 14y ago

Hopefully they bring up the petition to dismiss the prosecutor in this case. 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... Already about a fifth of the way there.

Fice 14y ago

It is not just wrongful prosecution that leads one to depression. The much harder thing is the feeling of lack of support. We should have been protesting when Aaron was alive, it's too late now. We are to blame for his death, and we should make a lesson out of it.