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Criminal? This is the kind of warped thinking that lead to Aaron Swartz's death. Please chill out.

by sauravc 14y ago

omni 14y ago
The moral of Aaron's death is not that everything should be legal. As snarfy pointed out, he granted access to systems of a "critical infrastructure" company without any idea who would gain access. This is and should be criminal, as widespread economic and human damage could possibly result if these critical systems went down. I say this as someone who recently had to spend two weeks without electricity and running water in New York City.
- pretoriusB 14y ago
  >I say this as someone who recently had to spend two weeks without electricity and running water in New York City. Oh, the humanity!
  - thirdtruck 14y ago
    Two weeks without electricity in the winter. People die like that.
    - njharman 14y ago
      You realize there are large swaths of humanity that have no electricity. And that in the past and even today humans survive winters in much colder places than NYC without electricity.
    - pretoriusB 14y ago
      Thousands of people have no electricity, running water OR HOME in New York all year round -- not just as a temporary inconvenience because of a storm. And hundreds of millions, nay billions, have no access to electricity or running water in the third world. Most of them have no access to food or doctors either.
- yo-mf 14y ago
  Poor thing, and was your latte not warm enough this morning? Please get off the soapbox, this guy is not a criminal and no one is suggesting that "everything should be legal".
  - ttrt 14y ago
    You're being rude. Anyway: http://www.wsvn.com/news/articles/tracking_tropics/21008929250886/power-out-at-nyc-hospital-200-patients-evacuate/ http://www.wsvn.com/news/articles/tracking_tropics/210089292...
  - leoedin 14y ago
    Disparaging comments aren't really constructive. You have no idea whether the guy's a criminal or not - that depends entirely on the circumstances surrounding the case. Surely it's in the best interest of society to ensure that allowing unvetted foreigners access to critical computer systems is illegal? Obviously the facts surrounding this case (which none of us know) determine whether this particular person is a criminal or not.
leoedin 14y ago
Potentially yes. It completely depends on the level of access he gave. If the systems that he gave uncontrolled and unmonitored access to are in any way critical (and if he didn't properly review the code produced by the contractors) then he could have created a huge security issue. If he was truly working on critical infrastructure then there's all sorts of criminal liability issues there. The issue with Aaron Swartz's case is that the prosecuters decided to throw the book at him for crimes which caused very little damage. The two cases have pretty much nothing in common beyond "computers".
- Mvandenbergh 14y ago
  >If he was truly working on critical infrastructure then there's all sorts of criminal liability issues there. Really? Under what laws?

Criminal? This is the kind of warped thinking that lead to Aaron Swartz's death. Please chill out.

by sauravc 14y ago

Criminal? This is the kind of warped thinking that lead to Aaron Swartz's death. Please chill out.

omni 14y ago

The moral of Aaron's death is not that everything should be legal. As snarfy pointed out, he granted access to systems of a "critical infrastructure" company without any idea who would gain access. This is and should be criminal, as widespread economic and human damage could possibly result if these critical systems went down. I say this as someone who recently had to spend two weeks without electricity and running water in New York City.

pretoriusB 14y ago
>I say this as someone who recently had to spend two weeks without electricity and running water in New York City. Oh, the humanity!
- thirdtruck 14y ago
  Two weeks without electricity in the winter. People die like that.
  - njharman 14y ago
    You realize there are large swaths of humanity that have no electricity. And that in the past and even today humans survive winters in much colder places than NYC without electricity.
  - pretoriusB 14y ago
    Thousands of people have no electricity, running water OR HOME in New York all year round -- not just as a temporary inconvenience because of a storm. And hundreds of millions, nay billions, have no access to electricity or running water in the third world. Most of them have no access to food or doctors either.
yo-mf 14y ago
Poor thing, and was your latte not warm enough this morning? Please get off the soapbox, this guy is not a criminal and no one is suggesting that "everything should be legal".
- ttrt 14y ago
  You're being rude. Anyway: http://www.wsvn.com/news/articles/tracking_tropics/21008929250886/power-out-at-nyc-hospital-200-patients-evacuate/ http://www.wsvn.com/news/articles/tracking_tropics/210089292...
- leoedin 14y ago
  Disparaging comments aren't really constructive. You have no idea whether the guy's a criminal or not - that depends entirely on the circumstances surrounding the case. Surely it's in the best interest of society to ensure that allowing unvetted foreigners access to critical computer systems is illegal? Obviously the facts surrounding this case (which none of us know) determine whether this particular person is a criminal or not.

leoedin 14y ago

Potentially yes. It completely depends on the level of access he gave. If the systems that he gave uncontrolled and unmonitored access to are in any way critical (and if he didn't properly review the code produced by the contractors) then he could have created a huge security issue. If he was truly working on critical infrastructure then there's all sorts of criminal liability issues there. The issue with Aaron Swartz's case is that the prosecuters decided to throw the book at him for crimes which caused very little damage. The two cases have pretty much nothing in common beyond "computers".

Mvandenbergh 14y ago
>If he was truly working on critical infrastructure then there's all sorts of criminal liability issues there. Really? Under what laws?