Posted on 01/13/2013 5:13:19 PM PST by libstripper
At the time of his suicide, Aaron Swartz was preparing for a crucial hearing in his federal criminal case, likely his best chance to thwart federal prosecutors who had developed solid evidence against the Internet activist who was facing an April trial on a 13-count felony indictment.
The 26-year-old Swartz, who killed himself Friday in his Brooklyn apartment, was scheduled for a January 25 evidentiary hearing in U.S. District Court in Boston, Massachusetts. Lawyers for Swartz were seeking to suppress material gathered in connection with Swartz’s breach of a Massachusetts Institute of Technology computer network.
The January 2011 incursion netted Swartz, a Reddit cofounder who also helped develop the RSS standard, millions of scholarly papers from the JSTOR archive. He was planning to make the material public at no cost.
(Excerpt) Read more at thesmokinggun.com ...
This is the trouble with computers - everything is there forever, unlike paper records that were once simple to shred like Sandy Berger did during a congressional investigation.
I feel no pity for him. He is being portrayed as some sort of hero. He is basically a communist who believed that if it exists everybody is entitled to it. So he stole millions of copyrighted research documents that cost many of millions of dollars to produce. MIT was hoping to recoup some of the cost by charging folks to get access to them. He was caught red-handed. Actually, not a bad outcome.
Oops, “was” basically a communist.
It is curious that he didn’t want to fight them like many other hackers have done, but then, as other articles inform us, the dude was a “progressive”, one fairly active, so we may conclude that he felt betrayed by his heroes.
The dude could haved faced more prison time than Taliban John Walker Lindh.
I imagine he thought he was in the right.
I imagine he thought the government was oppressive and restricting basic freedom, as he saw it.
I imagine he wanted to do something to stand up to a government that opposed basic freedom.
I understand that sort of feeling. Maybe not on the issue of Intellectual property, but on other topics, I do understand the feeling.
But if I were to feel that all bets were off, and my life was basically over because of what our government has become ... well ... I wouldn’t end it quietly in a little room by myself.
Just sayin’
I imagine also that he voted for Obama. Twice.
Oh, I’m sure. I’m no fan of this Swartz guy. I’m just saying that if you’re stepping out, you might as well invite some bad guys to go with you.
Adjust your imaginings to the thinking of a “progressive” that this guy was, and not a more typical hacker who’s more of an anarchist.
I imagine also that he voted for Obama. Twice.
a smart guy like that ? maybe 2000 times
At least he had the decency to not take a bunch of other people with him.
Come full coup, the “useful idiots” are the first to be lined up and shot, because if they become disillusioned before they die they WILL fight.
I’m waiting for something to happen to Oliver Stone.
Text of MIT President L. Rafael Reif’s email to MIT Community:
To the members of the MIT community:
Yesterday we received the shocking and terrible news that on Friday in New York, Aaron Swartz, a gifted young man well known and admired by many in the MIT community, took his own life. With this tragedy, his family and his friends suffered an inexpressible loss, and we offer our most profound condolences. Even for those of us who did not know Aaron, the trail of his brief life shines with his brilliant creativity and idealism.
Although Aaron had no formal affiliation with MIT, I am writing to you now because he was beloved by many members of our community and because MIT played a role in the legal struggles that began for him in 2011.
I want to express very clearly that I and all of us at MIT are extremely saddened by the death of this promising young man who touched the lives of so many. It pains me to think that MIT played any role in a series of events that have ended in tragedy.
I will not attempt to summarize here the complex events of the past two years. Now is a time for everyone involved to reflect on their actions, and that includes all of us at MIT. I have asked Professor Hal Abelson to lead a thorough analysis of MIT’s involvement from the time that we first perceived unusual activity on our network in fall 2010 up to the present. I have asked that this analysis describe the options MIT had and the decisions MIT made, in order to understand and to learn from the actions MIT took. I will share the report with the MIT community when I receive it.
I hope we will all reach out to those members of our community we know who may have been affected by Aaron’s death. As always, MIT Medical is available to provide expert counseling, but there is no substitute for personal understanding and support.
With sorrow and deep sympathy,
L. Rafael Reif
Exactly. We often say that the revolution eats its children, and that the time will come when they (the Obamanoids) will be disappointed with their messiah. A prime example here. (Not to mention the Friday morning paychecks with increased withholdings.) A thief joins the Revolution only to find out that upon winning his beloved leaders become “corrupted” by the fascists and consider him a... thief!
I can tell you from my own experience that a pissed off man keeps fighting on, but a man who feels disappointed by a betrayal falls into depression and sometimes kills himself. As you said, it’s starting.
I believe that a brilliant yet depressed man killed himself, in part due to the bullying of an overzealous federal prosecutor using novel and extreme interpretations of the law.
It is said that the prosecutor had political ambitions, but they are now as dead as the man she goaded to his death.
>> a smart guy like that ? maybe 2000 times
ROFL!
Post ‘o the Day nominee
Commies back the socialist until the commies can take over then they eliminate the socialist useful idiots first as they are known to have betrayed their own countrymen.
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