Ok just found about this. Aaron has a ridiculous baller resume including working on the RSS spec, Creative Commons, Reddit, and etc… This is guy is like Assange Jr… He logged into JSTOR, which is a db of private articles, and wanted to make them available for free to the public. As punishment, he faced a ludicrous prison sentence.
Now he has just commited suicide. Meanwhile, actual Wall street crooks roam the streets free and rich, and USA drops bombs on muslims. Fucking bullshit.
Yeah…I read about his passing.
Crazy smart kid…strongly opposed SOPA and the bullshit MPAA and RIAA have been lobbying to Congress to take more money away.
Shame.
Needs change.
Idiot. Killed himself for no reason.
potentially 30 years in prison and no future isnt quite no reason
Sad that he had to go, especially since fucking JSTOR had no real issue with this, and yet MIT was furious.
I am thinking that his sentence could have been shortened by tons and he could have lived under protection dependig on if he was willing to play ball
Theft is theft, he deserved to be punished that is not up for dispute, but 20 years is akin to Daigo double perfecting Noah straight out of the womb for crying.
In this day and age, copyrights are fucking over so many citizens. We’re suddenly sending people away to prison for HUGE chunks of their lives, over fucking copyright infringement and other nonsense. We are culturally fucked for generations to come 
The length of a worst case scenario sentencing is more than enough proof that companies’ lobbying is leading to too much power.
Stealing property. Selling National Secrets. Collaborating with terrorists. Selling Kiddie porn. STILL do not warrant the same punishment as what he was doing? That is ass-backwards, and literally makes no sense. This is nuts.
You do not know that. It sounds like whoever had it out for him may have been willing to play ball. But at what cost? What do you think that they would have made/forced him to do to maintain his freedom? You have to be real man. He may have ended up being a slave to the very companies/people he was fighting against, and they would not have been nice or fair about it. I might just be guessing but it is also a possibility that he would have been made an example of.
After Anonymous and Wikileaks, the US Government and their corporate masters pretty much want to make an example out of everybody. Congratz on a world where a record company can sue you for several thousand dollars per song you download (even though you can buy mp3’s for a dollar or less on itunes), and where sharing information (something humanity has had little or no problem with over the years) is suddenly something worthy of ruining somebodies life over.
I don’t condone his actions leading to his indictment, but 30 years is too much. Was the stuff he stole super-sensitive, like national security sensitive?
no.
I only skimmed the article but it sounds like the dude stole potentially billions of dollars worth of research and when he got caught he offed himself. What he did is a bit more serious the downloading MP3s and he deserved legal punishment. He should have at least fought the case in court. I have no sympathy but I can’t fault people that do. May the Swartz be with you.
I read the article, and it seems he did fight but the case was draining his funds.
I wonder if Anonymous is going to step in. Such a misguided group.
That seems like an excessive amount of jail time. If it had been more reasonable, then maybe he’d still be alive.
pffft, he stole knowledge? Knowledge should be free anyways. Most of the JSTOR shit is available on the internet in one form or another. JSTOR wanted no legal action against him. JSTOR lets their shit go to the public domain. This is basically like scanning all your books and notes in college and providing them to your friends and classmates.
soviet i totally love you no homo keep preaching
freedom of information is a good philosophy to have, regardless of what the information itself is
it keeps corporations and governments hell bent on power in check
the ulitimate shit deal in this, was that JSTOR literally reached an agreement with him over this, and everything was done. Then the fucking fed’s wouldn’t drop it, and tried to make an example out of him. So now we basically wait for Anon or the Reddit community to get fucking PISSED over this, and wreck some politicians/fed’s lives up.
a lot of countries are already moving towards free post secondary education, and with college fee’s going through the roof, and the FUCKING INTERNET EXISTS, knowledge should be free for one and all. Learning a trade or learning ANYTHING for that matter, shouldn’t cost an arm and a leg.
Got damn, I swear to God, if shit ever goes ugly, I will be one of the first fuck’s on the front lines, tossing molotov’s and looting and killing rich scum.
Can I have your bank account numbers? It’s for the people.