Ryan Vesey (talk | contribs) Undid revision 533037100 by Skamecrazy123 (talk) Past tense of hang, when it refers to death, is hanged |
CarthCarsen (talk | contribs) Removed completely irrelevant quasi-legal section. Not only were the referenced case(s) in a different jurisdiction, they do not stand for the proposition that prosecution cannot occur under (or is disfavored) under the CFAA for Swartz's alleged crimes. |
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Assistant U.S. Attorneys Stephen P. Heymann and Scott L. Garland<ref>{{Citation |title=Superseding Indictment - ''United States of America v. Aaron Swartz'' |date=September 12, 2012 |page=17 |url=http://www.wired.com/images_blogs/threatlevel/2012/09/swartzsuperseding.pdf}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Aaron Swartz, Coder and Activist, Dead at 26 |last=Poulsen |first=Kevin |date=January 12, 2013 |url=http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2013/01/aaron-swartz/ |archivedate=January 13, 2013 |archiveurl=http://www.webcitation.org/6DdbqKLaQ}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Aaron Swartz, Internet Pioneer, Found Dead Amid Prosecutor 'Bullying' In Unconventional Case |last1=Carter |first1=Zach |last2=Grim |first2=Ryan |last3=Reilly |first3=Ryan J. |date=January 12, 2013 |url=http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/01/12/aaron-swartz_n_2463726.html}}</ref> pursued the criminal case against Swartz under U.S. attorney [[Carmen Ortiz]], who justified the charges by stating "stealing is stealing, whether you use a computer command or a crowbar, and whether you take documents, data or dollars."<ref name="open-access-adv" /> The case tested the reach of the [[Computer Fraud and Abuse Act]], which was passed in 1984 to enhance the government’s ability to prosecute hackers who accessed computers to steal information or to disrupt or destroy computer functionality. |
Assistant U.S. Attorneys Stephen P. Heymann and Scott L. Garland<ref>{{Citation |title=Superseding Indictment - ''United States of America v. Aaron Swartz'' |date=September 12, 2012 |page=17 |url=http://www.wired.com/images_blogs/threatlevel/2012/09/swartzsuperseding.pdf}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Aaron Swartz, Coder and Activist, Dead at 26 |last=Poulsen |first=Kevin |date=January 12, 2013 |url=http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2013/01/aaron-swartz/ |archivedate=January 13, 2013 |archiveurl=http://www.webcitation.org/6DdbqKLaQ}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Aaron Swartz, Internet Pioneer, Found Dead Amid Prosecutor 'Bullying' In Unconventional Case |last1=Carter |first1=Zach |last2=Grim |first2=Ryan |last3=Reilly |first3=Ryan J. |date=January 12, 2013 |url=http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/01/12/aaron-swartz_n_2463726.html}}</ref> pursued the criminal case against Swartz under U.S. attorney [[Carmen Ortiz]], who justified the charges by stating "stealing is stealing, whether you use a computer command or a crowbar, and whether you take documents, data or dollars."<ref name="open-access-adv" /> The case tested the reach of the [[Computer Fraud and Abuse Act]], which was passed in 1984 to enhance the government’s ability to prosecute hackers who accessed computers to steal information or to disrupt or destroy computer functionality. |
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The government, however, has interpreted the anti-hacking provisions to include activities such as violating a Web site's terms of service or a company's computer usage policy, a position a federal appeals court in April said means "millions of unsuspecting individuals would find that they are engaging in criminal conduct." The 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals, in limiting reach of the CFAA, said that violations of employee contract agreements and Web sites' terms of service were better left to civil lawsuits. |
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The rulings by the 9th Circuit cover the West, and not Massachusetts, meaning they are not binding in Swartz's prosecution. The Obama administration declined to petition the Supreme Court to request review of the ruling.<ref name="feds-charge"/><ref name=wiredDOJ/> |
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==Death== |
==Death== |
Revision as of 14:53, 14 January 2013
Aaron Swartz | |
---|---|
Born | Aaron H. Swartz[1] November 8, 1986 |
Died | January 11, 2013 | (aged 26)
Cause of death | Suicide by hanging |
Occupation(s) | Software developer, writer, Internet activist |
Website | aaronsw.com |
Aaron H. Swartz (November 8, 1986 – January 11, 2013) was an American computer programmer, writer, archivist, political organizer, and Internet activist.
Swartz was a member of the RSS-DEV Working Group that co-authored the "RSS 1.0" specification of RSS[2], and built the Web site framework web.py and the architecture for the Open Library. He also built Infogami, a company that merged with Reddit in its early days, through which he became an equal owner of the merged company.[i] Swartz also focused on sociology, civic awareness and activism. In 2010 he was a member of the Harvard University Center for Ethics. He cofounded the online group Demand Progress (known for its campaign against SOPA) and later worked with US and international activist groups Rootstrikers and Avaaz.
On January 6, 2011, Swartz was arrested in connection with systematic downloading of academic journal articles from JSTOR, which became the subject of a federal investigation.[3][4] Swartz disliked the fact that JSTOR charged to access articles but, rather than compensating the authors, JSTOR compensated publishers instead. JSTOR's fees limited access to works produced by America's colleges and universities.[5][6]
On January 11, 2013, Swartz was found dead in his Crown Heights, Brooklyn, apartment, where he had hanged himself.[7][8][9][10]
Life and works
Swartz was born in Chicago, Illinois, the son of Susan and Robert Swartz.[11] Swartz's family lived in Highland Park, Illinois. His father founded a software company, and from a young age Swartz was interested in computing, ardently studying computers, the Internet and Internet culture.[12] When he was 13, Swartz was a winner of the ArsDigita Prize, a competition for young people who created "useful, educational, and collaborative" non-commercial Web sites. The prize included a trip to Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and meetings with Internet notables. At the age of 14 Swartz was collaborating with experts in networking standards as a member of the working group that authored the RSS 1.0 Specification. Writing in Yahoo! News, Virginia Heffernan said about Swartz, "he agitated without cease—or compensation—for the free-culture movement."[13]. Swartz attended North Shore Country Day High School, a small private high school in Winnetka, Illinois. [14]
Infogami and Reddit
He later attended Stanford University, but left after just one year.[12] Instead he founded the software company Infogami, a startup that was funded by Y Combinator's first Summer Founders Program.[15]
Through the Y Combinator program, Swartz started the wiki platform Infogami (later used to support the web.py and Open Library sites), but felt he needed co-founders to proceed. Y-Combinator organizers suggested that Infogami merge with Reddit,[16][17] which it did in November 2005.[18][19] While Reddit initially found it difficult to make money from the project, the site later gained in popularity, with millions of users visiting it each month. In late 2006, after months of negotiations, Reddit was sold to Condé Nast Publications, owners of Wired magazine.[12] Swartz moved with his company to San Francisco to work on Wired, but grew unhappy with the set-up[12] and in January, 2007, he was asked to resign from his position.[20] Swartz described himself as being ill and suffering from a constant depressed mood throughout 2007.[21] In September, 2007, Swartz joined with Simon Carstensen and launched Jottit. In 2010–2011 he was a fellow at Harvard University's Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics.[22]
Swartz was also the creator of the web.py Web application framework,[23] and co-founded Demand Progress,[22] a progressive advocacy group that organizes people via email and other media for "contacting Congress and other leaders, funding pressure tactics, and spreading the word" about targeted issues.[citation needed]
Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA)
Swartz was significantly involved with a campaign to prevent the passing of the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) bill that sought to monitor the Internet for copyright violations. Following the defeat of the bill, Swartz was the keynote speaker at the F2C:Freedom to Connect 2012 event in Washington DC, US on May 21, 2012—Swartz's speech was entitled "How we stopped SOPA"[24] and he informed the audience:
It was really stopped by the people; the people themselves—they killed the bill dead. So dead, that when members of Congress propose something now that even touches the Internet, they have to give a long speech beforehand about how it is definitely not like SOPA. So dead, that when you ask Congressional staffers about it, they groan and shake their heads, like it's all a bad dream they're trying really hard to forget. So dead, that it's kind of hard to believe this story; hard to remember how close it all came to actually passing. Hard to remember how this could have gone any other way. But it wasn't a dream or a nightmare—it was all very real. And it will happen again; sure, it will have another name, and maybe a different excuse, and probably do its damage in a different way, but make no mistake, the enemies of the freedom to connect have not disappeared. The fire in those politician's eyes has not been put out. There are a lot of people, a lot of powerful people, who wanna clamp down on the Internet. And to be honest, there aren't a whole lot who have a vested interest in protecting it from all of that ... We won this fight because everyone made themselves the hero of their own story. Everyone took it as their job to save this crucial freedom ... the senators were right—the Internet really is out of control![24]
Swartz also presented on this topic at an event organized by ThoughtWorks.[25]
Wikipedia
Swartz volunteered as an editor at Wikipedia, and in 2006 ran for the Wikimedia Foundation's Board of Directors, but lost. Also in 2006 Swartz wrote an analysis of how Wikipedia articles are written, and concluded that the bulk of the actual content comes from tens of thousands of occasional contributors, or "outsiders," each of whom may not make many other contributions to the site,[26] while a core group of 500 to 1,000 regular editors tend to correct spelling and other formatting errors. According to Swartz: "The formatters aid the contributors, not the other way around."[27]
His analysis contradicted that of Jimmy Wales' who believed the core group of regular editors were providing most of the content while thousands of others contributed to formatting issues. Swartz came to his conclusions by counting the total number of characters added by an editor to a particular article - while Wales counted the total number of edits. Swartz's analysis is described on his blog post and was part of his unsuccessful bid to be elected to Wikimedia's Board of Directors.[27]
Legal problems
PACER
In 2009, he allegedly downloaded and publicly released approximately 20% of the PACER database of United States federal court documents managed by the Administrative Office of the United States Courts.[28][29] He had accessed the system as part of a free trial of PACER at 17 libraries around the country, which was suspended "pending an evaluation" as a result of Swartz's actions. Those actions brought him under investigation by the FBI, but the case was closed two months later with no charges being filed.[29]
JSTOR
On July 19, 2011, Swartz was charged by Carmen Ortiz, the U.S. Attorney for Massachusetts, with wire fraud, computer fraud, unlawfully obtaining information from a protected computer, and recklessly damaging a protected computer, in relation to downloading roughly 4 million academic journal articles from JSTOR.[30] According to the indictment against him, Swartz surreptitiously attached a laptop to MIT's computer network, which allowed him to "rapidly download an extraordinary volume of articles from JSTOR."[31] Prosecutors in the case claim Swartz acted with the intention of making the papers available on P2P file-sharing sites.[32]
Swartz surrendered to authorities, pleading not guilty on all accounts, and was released on US$100,000 unsecured bail.[33][34] Prosecution of the case continued, with charges of wire fraud and computer fraud, carrying a potential prison term of up to 35 years and a fine of up to $1 million.[35][36] After Swartz's arrest, JSTOR put out a statement saying it would not pursue civil litigation against him,[33][37] though MIT remained silent on the proceedings.[38]
Assistant U.S. Attorneys Stephen P. Heymann and Scott L. Garland[39][40][41] pursued the criminal case against Swartz under U.S. attorney Carmen Ortiz, who justified the charges by stating "stealing is stealing, whether you use a computer command or a crowbar, and whether you take documents, data or dollars."[33] The case tested the reach of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, which was passed in 1984 to enhance the government’s ability to prosecute hackers who accessed computers to steal information or to disrupt or destroy computer functionality.
Death
Swartz was found dead in his Crown Heights, Brooklyn, apartment on January 11, 2013.[42] A spokeswoman for New York's Medical Examiner reported that he had hanged himself.[43][44] At the time of his death, Swartz, if convicted, faced a maximum of $1 million[45] in fines and more than 35 years[45] in prison after the government increased the number of felony counts against him from 4 to 13.[46]
The family and partner of Swartz created a memorial Web site on which they issued a statement, saying, "He used his prodigious skills as a programmer and technologist not to enrich himself but to make the Internet and the world a fairer, better place."
Aaron's death is not simply a personal tragedy, it is the product of a criminal justice system rife with intimidation and prosecutorial overreach. Decisions made by officials in the Massachusetts U.S. Attorney’s office and at MIT contributed to his death.
Statement by family and partner of Aaron Swartz[47]
Swartz was eulogized by his friend and sometime attorney, Lawrence Lessig, calling his prosecution an abuse of proportionality and noting, "the question this government needs to answer is why it was so necessary that Aaron Swartz be labeled a 'felon'."[44]
Alex Stamos, CEO of Artemis Internet, is a computer forensics investigator employed by the Swartz legal defense as an expert witness. On January 12, 2013, he posted a summary of the expert testimony he was prepared to present in the JSTOR case, concluding, "I know a criminal hack when I see it, and Aaron’s downloading of journal articles from an unlocked closet is not an offense worth 35 years in jail."[48]
Swartz's funeral services will be held on January 15, 2013, at Central Avenue Synagogue in Highland Park, Illinois.[49]
JSTOR announced earlier the same week as Swartz's death it would make "more than 4.5 million articles" available to the public for free[50]—but capped at three articles every two weeks.[51]
Public response
Supporters of Swartz responded with an effort called #pdftribute to promote Open Access, a cause Swartz had long supported.[52][53] More than 10,000 people signed a petition to the White House calling for the removal of Carmen Ortiz, the U.S. Attorney involved in the case, "for overreach in the case of Aaron Swartz."[54]
Publications
- Swartz, Aaron (2002). "MusicBrainz: A Semantic Web Service" (PDF). IEEE Intelligent Systems. 17 (1). UMBC: 76–77. doi:10.1109/5254.988466. ISSN 1541-1672.
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Notes
References
- ^ Cai, Anne (January 12, 2013). "Aaron Swartz commits suicide". The Tech. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Retrieved January 12, 2013.
- ^ ""Introdution: Aaron Swartz"". Retrieved January 13, 2013.
- ^ Kirschbaum, Connor (August 3, 2011). "Swartz indicted for JSTOR theft". The Tech. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Retrieved January 12, 2013.
- ^ "Police Log". The Tech. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. February 18, 2011. Retrieved January 12, 2013.
- ^ "Swartz "Steals" for Science". Retrieved January 13, 2013.
- ^ "The inspiring heroism of Aaron Swartz". Retrieved January 13, 2013.
- ^ "Aaron Swartz, internet freedom activist, dies aged 26". BBC News Online. January 13, 2013. Retrieved January 13, 2013.
- ^ Owen Thomas (January 12, 2013). "Family Of Aaron Swartz Blames MIT, Prosecutors For His Death". Business Insider. Retrieved January 12, 2013.
- ^ John Schwartz (January 13, 2013). "Internet Activist, a Creator of RSS, Is Dead at 26, Apparently a Suicide". The New York Times. Retrieved January 13, 2013.
- ^ "Aaron Swartz, co-founder of Reddit and online activist, hangs himself in Brooklyn apartment, authorities say". The New York Daily News. January 12, 2013. Retrieved January 12, 2013.
{{cite news}}
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ignored (help) - ^ "Aaron Swartz dies at 26; Internet folk hero founded Reddit". Los Angeles Times. January 12, 2013.
- ^ a b c d Aaron, Swartz. "How to get a job like mine". Aaron Swartz: just the facts, sir. Jottit.com. Retrieved January 12, 2013.
- ^ Heffernan, Virginia (January 12, 2013). "Aaron Swartz, 1986-2013: a computer hacker who is now a political martyr". Yahoo! News. Retrieved January 13, 2013.
- ^ "Reddit co-creator Aaron Swartz dies from suicide". Chicago Tribune. January 13, 2013.
- ^ Singel, Ryan (September 13, 2005). "Stars Rise at Startup Summer Camp". Wired.com. Condé Nast. Retrieved January 12, 2013.
- ^ "Introduction", Infogami, archived from the original on 2007‐12‐24
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(help) - ^ "Passion for your users will come back: Alexis Ohanian, cofounder of Reddit". Startup stories. November 11, 2006. Archived from the original on August 8, 2007.
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(help) - ^ a b c Singel, Ryan (July 19, 2011). "Feds Charge Activist as Hacker for Downloading Millions of Academic Articles". Wired. Retrieved January 12, 2013.
- ^ Lenssen, Philipp (2007). "A Chat with Aaron Swartz". Google Blogoscoped. Google Inc. Archived from the original on April 27, 2010. Retrieved May 11, 2010.
{{cite web}}
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suggested) (help) - ^ Aaron, Swartz. "Sick" (weblog). Retrieved January 12, 2013.
- ^ a b Matthews, Laura (July 19, 2011). "Who is Aaron Swartz, the JSTOR MIT Hacker?". International Business Times. International Business Times. Retrieved January 13, 2013.
- ^ Grehan, Rick (August 10, 2011). "Pillars of Python: Web.py Web framework". InfoWorld. IDG. Retrieved January 12, 2013.
- ^ a b F2C2012 (22). "F2C2012: Aaron Swartz keynote - "How we stopped SOPA"" (Video upload). YouTube. Google, Inc. Retrieved 13 January 2013.
{{cite web}}
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ignored (help)CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link) - ^ Joe Friendly (17). "Aaron Swartz: How We Stopped SOPA" (Video upload). YouTube. Google, Inc. Retrieved 13 January 2013.
{{cite web}}
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and|year=
/|date=
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ignored (help) - ^ Blodget, Henry (January 3, 2009). "Who The Hell Writes Wikipedia, Anyway?". Business Insider. Retrieved January 12, 2013.
- ^ a b Aaron Swartz (September 4, 2006). "Who Writes Wikipedia? (Aaron Swartz's Raw Thought)". Retrieved January 12, 2013.
- ^ Schwartz, John (February 12, 2009). "An Effort to Upgrade a Court Archive System to Free and Easy". The New York Times. Retrieved January 12, 2013.
- ^ a b Singel, Ryan (October 5, 2009). "FBI Investigated Coder for Liberating Paywalled Court Records". Wired. Condé Nast. Retrieved January 12, 2013.
- ^ Bilton, Nick (July 19, 2011). "Internet Activist Charged in Data Theft". Boston: Bits Blog, The New York Times Company. Retrieved July 19, 2011.
- ^ Lundin, Leigh (July 31, 2011). "The Thief Who Stole Knowledge". Computer Crimes. Criminal Brief.
- ^ Lindsay, Jay (July 19, 2011). "Feds: Harvard fellow hacked millions of papers". Associated Press. Retrieved July 20, 2011.
- ^ a b c Schwartz, John (July 19, 2011). "Open-Access Advocate Arrested for Huge Download". The New York Times. Archived from the original on January 13, 2013. Retrieved January 12, 2013.
- ^ District of Massachusetts. "United States v. Aaron Swartz". The Internet Archive/RECAP. 1:11-cr-10260.
{{cite web}}
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(help) - ^ Sims, Nancy (October 2011). "Library licensing and criminal law: The Aaron Swartz case". College & Research Libraries News. 72 (9). Association of College and Research Libraries: 534–537. ISSN 0099-0086. Retrieved January 13, 2013.
- ^ "US Government Ups Felony Count In JSTOR/Aaron Swartz Case From Four To Thirteen". Tech dirt. 2012‐9‐17. Retrieved January 12, 2013.
{{cite web}}
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(help) - ^ "JSTOR Statement: Misuse Incident and Criminal Case". JSTOR. Retrieved January 12, 2013.
- ^ Lessig, Lawrence. "Prosecutor as bully". Retrieved January 13, 2013.
- ^ Superseding Indictment - United States of America v. Aaron Swartz (PDF), September 12, 2012, p. 17
- ^ Poulsen, Kevin (January 12, 2013). "Aaron Swartz, Coder and Activist, Dead at 26". Archived from the original on January 13, 2013.
- ^ Carter, Zach; Grim, Ryan; Reilly, Ryan J. (January 12, 2013). "Aaron Swartz, Internet Pioneer, Found Dead Amid Prosecutor 'Bullying' In Unconventional Case".
- ^ Wisloski, Jess. "Reddit Founder Dead in Crown Heights Home, Reports Say - DNAinfo.com New York". Dnainfo.com. Retrieved January 13, 2013.
- ^ "Co-founder of Reddit Aaron Swartz found dead". News. CBS. Retrieved January 12, 2013.
- ^ a b Lessig, Lawrence (January 12, 2013). "Prosecutor as bully". Retrieved January 12, 2013.
- ^ a b "Aaron Swartz, Tech Prodigy and Internet Activist, Is Dead at 26". News. Time. Retrieved January 13, 2013.
- ^ Kravets, David (01.12.2013). "Internet activist Aaron Swartz commits suicide". Wired. Retrieved January 13, 2013.
{{cite news}}
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(help) - ^ "Remember Aaron Swartz". Tumblr. Archived from the original on January 13, 2013. Retrieved January 12, 2013.
- ^ "The Truth about Aaron Swartz's "Crime"". Blog. Unhandled Exception. Retrieved January 12, 2013.
- ^ Family Of Aaron Swartz Blames MIT, Prosecutors For His Death
- ^ "Net activist found dead before trial". 3 News NZ. January 14, 2013.
- ^ "Many JSTOR Journal Archives Now Free to Public". January 9, 2013. Retrieved January 14, 2013.
- ^ Cutler, Kim-Mai. "PDF Tribute to Aaron Swartz Attracts Roughly 1,500 Links To Copyright-Protected Research". techcrunch.com. Retrieved January 14, 2013.
- ^ Musil, Steven. "Researchers honor Swartz's memory with PDF protest". news.cnet.com. Retrieved January 14, 2013.
- ^ Smith, Gerry (01/13/2013). "Were The Charges Against Internet Activist Aaron Swartz Too Severe?". Huffington Post.
{{cite news}}
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(help) - ^ "...there was a third cofounder of Reddit, who was...", Today I learned..., Reddit
- ^ Ohanian, Alexis, Twitter
- ^ Ohanian, Alexis, +, Google
Cite error: A list-defined reference named "feds-charge" is not used in the content (see the help page).
External links
- Official website
- "Official Statement from the family and partner of Aaron Swartz", Remember Aaron Swartz, Tumblr.
- The Aaron Swartz Collection at Internet Archive
- Aaron Swartz on X
- Aaron Swartz at IMDb
- Aaron Swartz "How we stopped SOPA" keynote speech at Freedom to Connect Conference, May 21 2012. (Video)
- Aaron Swartz "We can change the world" interview, January 2010. (Video)