5 ms·

Reading this only magnifies the unmitigated disgust I feel towards Carmen Ortiz and her subordinates. Unfortunately, the only constructive thing we can do is ma

Reading this only magnifies the unmitigated disgust I feel towards Carmen Ortiz and her subordinates. Unfortunately, the only constructive thing we can do is make an example of them, just as they tried to make an example of Aaron. Help put their records as prosecutors on-line where everyone can see them. http://www.plainsite.org/asymptote/ http://www.plainsite.org/asymptote/ The goal is a page like this for every prosecutor in the country: http://www.plainsite.org/flashlight/attorney.html?id=69049 http://www.plainsite.org/flashlight/attorney.html?id=69049

tonywebster 14y ago
While I'm a big fan of getting public records online and accessible, PlainSite isn't the place to do it — every link results in a paywall. This is the opposite of what Aaron was fighting for. Asymptote, on the other hand, I think is a good idea as long as the user has RECAP installed so it can benefit the entire community by making those records openly accessible.
- tptacek 14y ago
  Doesn't Asymptote also help build a database for Aaron Greenspan's for-profit legal offering? I wish he'd be more up-front about this stuff.
  - thinkcomp 14y ago
    It helps build the Internet Archive's open database of legal documents, which PlainSite re-presents to the public for free, OR if you want to pay, also provides additional analytic data about. Your characterization of the initiative as being solely designed to benefit me financially is misleading and inaccurate, and I disagree with your assertion that I somehow should have been more forthright.
    - tptacek 14y ago
      "Solely designed to benefit me financially"? al·so /ˈôlsō/ Adverb In addition; too.
      - thinkcomp 14y ago
        That's correct, Operation Asymptote is helping to place public information in the public domain, and I am also making a profit from public information once it is in the public domain, as is my (and anyone's) right. But I did not create Operation Asymptote because I thought it would make me rich; I created it because it serves an important public good and because I knew Aaron Swartz and respected him. I do not find it necessary to explicitly disclose beyond what it already obvious from the PlainSite web site that I may capitalize on opportunities that are available to everyone, and which my work (and funding of others' work) has made more available to everyone. Would you prefer that information not be in the public domain at all because I might make a profit from helping to organize it? Or are you saying that I have an obligation to disclaim that I might hypothetically make more of a profit from there being more public information in the public domain, which applies as much to you as it does me? Or are you (also) saying that I may not earn a living by any means and discuss circumstances surrounding or even unrelated to those circumstances unless they happen to meet your particular standards first? Or are you saying that no one should be entitled to profit from public information at all and that only the government should be able to dictate what information will be disseminated and how? If you think you can do a better or somehow more "pure" job than I have making public information surrounding the justice system more accessible, please, by all means, go ahead. I and many others would be grateful. In the meantime, whatever you are saying, I find your comments incredibly callous, disrespectful, and misleading (because you make it sound like the data goes to only me, when really it goes to the Internet Archive RECAP database) and I once again request that you stop.
- thinkcomp 14y ago
  This is not true unless you are on a law firm network. Most likely the paywall you are referring to is PACER, which is what Aaron Swartz was fighting against...

tonywebster 14y ago

While I'm a big fan of getting public records online and accessible, PlainSite isn't the place to do it — every link results in a paywall. This is the opposite of what Aaron was fighting for. Asymptote, on the other hand, I think is a good idea as long as the user has RECAP installed so it can benefit the entire community by making those records openly accessible.

tptacek 14y ago
Doesn't Asymptote also help build a database for Aaron Greenspan's for-profit legal offering? I wish he'd be more up-front about this stuff.
- thinkcomp 14y ago
  It helps build the Internet Archive's open database of legal documents, which PlainSite re-presents to the public for free, OR if you want to pay, also provides additional analytic data about. Your characterization of the initiative as being solely designed to benefit me financially is misleading and inaccurate, and I disagree with your assertion that I somehow should have been more forthright.
  - tptacek 14y ago
    "Solely designed to benefit me financially"? al·so /ˈôlsō/ Adverb In addition; too.
    - thinkcomp 14y ago
      That's correct, Operation Asymptote is helping to place public information in the public domain, and I am also making a profit from public information once it is in the public domain, as is my (and anyone's) right. But I did not create Operation Asymptote because I thought it would make me rich; I created it because it serves an important public good and because I knew Aaron Swartz and respected him. I do not find it necessary to explicitly disclose beyond what it already obvious from the PlainSite web site that I may capitalize on opportunities that are available to everyone, and which my work (and funding of others' work) has made more available to everyone. Would you prefer that information not be in the public domain at all because I might make a profit from helping to organize it? Or are you saying that I have an obligation to disclaim that I might hypothetically make more of a profit from there being more public information in the public domain, which applies as much to you as it does me? Or are you (also) saying that I may not earn a living by any means and discuss circumstances surrounding or even unrelated to those circumstances unless they happen to meet your particular standards first? Or are you saying that no one should be entitled to profit from public information at all and that only the government should be able to dictate what information will be disseminated and how? If you think you can do a better or somehow more "pure" job than I have making public information surrounding the justice system more accessible, please, by all means, go ahead. I and many others would be grateful. In the meantime, whatever you are saying, I find your comments incredibly callous, disrespectful, and misleading (because you make it sound like the data goes to only me, when really it goes to the Internet Archive RECAP database) and I once again request that you stop.
thinkcomp 14y ago
This is not true unless you are on a law firm network. Most likely the paywall you are referring to is PACER, which is what Aaron Swartz was fighting against...