Everything about the suicide last friday of 26 year old Internet activist Aaron Swartz is tragic. Not only to those that knew him or knew of his actions but those who have discovered this only now through his death. Although battling with depression, a major contributory factor in his death was his ongoing prosecution by the US Attorney’s office over the illegal download of millions of academic articles hosted by the journal archive JSTOR. Swartz was originally planning on making the articles freely available through file sharing because he objected to JSTOR’s policy of charging for access of articles even when they were officially in the public domain.
Although JSTOR and MIT did not proceed with civil charges, the US Attorney’s office decided to proceed with a criminal case on charges of wire fraud, computer fraud, unlawfully obtaining information from a protected computer and damaging a protected computer. By November of last year, this had been increased to 13 counts and Swartz faced a maximum of $4 million in fines and more than 50 years in prison. In effect, this was for little more than violating the terms of reference of JSTOR’s web site and MIT’s network. The idea that Swartz could have profited from these actions or caused damage to JSTOR or MIT was patently absurd.
Although MIT was not active in the prosecution of the case against Swartz, they released network logs and security images without requiring a court order or valid subpoena. It is not clear who at MIT would have approved this but the IT department claimed that its actions were necessary to “protect its network”. Given MIT’s often public rhetoric on support of open access, it is particularly sad that these principles were set aside so easily in the case of Swartz’s actions.
Swartz was known for much more than just the incident with the download of publications. He was involved in the development of the specifications for RSS at the age of 14 and was involved in the early development of social news site Reddit. Swartz co-founded Demand Progress an activist organisation aimed at fighting Internet censorship, in particular the SOPA/PIPA acts, and more generally fighting for civil liberties, rights and government reform.
It is always tragic when someone with so much to offer and fight for is finally defeated and at such an early age. I hope that his legacy however will live on.
Update: MIT President L. Rafael Reif has published a tribute to Swartz and announced a full inquiry into the circumstances of MIT’s involvement
This didn’t stop hackers taking MIT’s website down for a short period this morning.
Academics from around the world have been posting their papers online as a tribute to Swartz’s efforts in championing open access and announcing this on Twitter using the hashtag #pdftribute.
Lawrence Lessig’s article on the Prosecutor as Bully
Cory Doctorow: RIP, Aaron Swartz
Statement of the Family and Partner of Aaron Swartz
Quinn Norton’s tribute
Arthur James Egleton Robey
Industrial Electrician
I would prefer that the Government were terrified of me than I were terrified of the government.
Those who disagree should read about fellows by the name of Adolph Hitler and Joseph Stalin.
A bit before your time but still thought provoking.
Michael Lenehan
retired
Thank you for alerting me to this person. I had no idea. How sad for the young manand his family and friends. He was obviously doing the right thing too! All academic articles should be available free on line - after all most academics usually give their writing away to publishers for free (and sometimes, I've been told, even pay the publisher in a weird kind of vanity publishing arrangement!) in order to get promotion by being published in journals very few people read. I hope wiki leaks hacks into JSTOR very soon. Poor Bradley Manning. Poor Julian. Poor Us.
Tony Simons
Accountant
This is the action of a totalitarian state as per Bradley Manning andJulian Assange. The giant corporations like Apple are so proprietorial and will crush anyone who dares to challenge them. They are also very effective lobbyists to protect their commercial interests. David Marr wrote today that Gillard has caved in to the churches to weed out gays and people living in sin.
Edwina Laginestra
Edwina Laginestra is a Friend of The Conversation.
Jack of all trades
The possibility of 50 years in prison and $4million in fines for an ideology of free access to information - what a joke. No intent to harm (like access to personal information, bank accounts or revealing secrets). These same US officials don't seem to give businessmen comparable fines although they have successfully brought down the economy for personal gain.
Dianna Arthur
Dianna Arthur is a Friend of The Conversation.
Environmentalist
Well said Edwina.
The endemic myopia of our government and business leaders is an inability to handle the truth.
Noely
logged in via Twitter
Might also be worthwhile to mention that Twitter has a very 'apt' tribute to a very very talented and ethical man with Academics around the world liberating their articles on hashtag #pdftribute for #AaronSwartz
Pyotr Kropotkin
logged in via Twitter
The death of Aaron Swartz is a tragedy. A brilliant intellect lost to the world. It would be difficult not to think that the looming court case and the possibility that he would end up facing - what was tantamount to a life sentence - did not contribute to his suicide.
His case and the indictment of Barrett Brown (https://leaksource.wordpress.com/tag/right-to-link/) speak to the clear intention of US authorities to intimidate anyone who dares to point out that the emperor has no clothes. This is in stark contrast to the treatment of large corporations such as HSBC who - despite having demonstrably violated international and US domestic laws and being subject to a record $1.9 billion fine, none of the banks directors or managers are held accountable. (http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2012/dec/11/hsbc-fine-prosecution-money-laundering) This is a travesty of justice, and a clear indication of how corrupt and politicised the USA system of justice has become.
Sean Lamb
Science Denier
It may well be that the suicide of this young man has as little to do with external events as that idiot nurse in London who killed herself in a fit of pique because she had previously been bullying a colleague about not sticking to protocol. He should have skipped to Belize or New Zealand
Be that is it may and speaking as a person who unkind voices may maliciously suggest has been known to do the odd illegal download himself, if open access to JSTOR is such an important issue hadn't government better buy it out or something?
Presumably people put money and time into setting JSTOR up and they want to be paid or get return on their investment. I mean one could certainly argue he was being over-prosecuted but he was essentially attempting to destroy somebody's perfectly legitimate and socially useful business.
If we feel collectively this should not be a business but run for the public good then the regulatory and funding apparatus needs to be put in place to do so.
Ben Williamson
logged in via Twitter
Photo credit should be Quinn Norton, not Quinn Nortaon.
David Glance
Director, Centre for Software Practice at University of Western Australia
Thanks - fixed
Yoron Hamber
Thinking
Only one thing to say.
What's wrong with MIT? Students have always done stuff, pranks, sometimes illegal. It belongs to the age, and it's also what moves the older definitions a step forward.