<HTML><HEAD></HEAD>
<BODY dir=ltr>
<DIV dir=ltr>
<DIV style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">
<DIV>I am posting below a few links reporting on the sad death by suicide of
young Internet activist, Aaron Schwatrz. Aaron was a complex figure who
made very substantial contributions to the Internet, including the initial RSS
specification, Reddit, and the founding of Creative Commons, and who
suffered from depression. Cory Doctorow reports on that here.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><A title=http://boingboing.net/2013/01/12/rip-aaron-swartz.html
href="http://boingboing.net/2013/01/12/rip-aaron-swartz.html">http://boingboing.net/2013/01/12/rip-aaron-swartz.html</A></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Aaron had been indicted in US for 13 counts of felony, and faced a long
imprisonment term, for releasing articles from academic journals to the public
domain. Last September, Tim Berners-Lee commented on the severity of these
charges as follows</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><A
title=http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2012/09/feds-go-overboard-in-prosecuting-information-activist/
href="http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2012/09/feds-go-overboard-in-prosecuting-information-activist/">http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2012/09/feds-go-overboard-in-prosecuting-information-activist/</A></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>And in recent hours Electronic Frontier Foundation has posted the
following</DIV>
<DIV><SPAN
style="TEXT-ALIGN: left; LINE-HEIGHT: 15px; WIDOWS: 2; TEXT-TRANSFORM: none; TEXT-INDENT: 0px; LETTER-SPACING: normal; DISPLAY: inline !important; FONT-FAMILY: ; WHITE-SPACE: normal; ORPHANS: 2; FLOAT: none; COLOR: ; WORD-SPACING: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px"><FONT
color=#333333 face=Tahoma></FONT></SPAN> </DIV>
<DIV><SPAN
style="TEXT-ALIGN: left; LINE-HEIGHT: 15px; WIDOWS: 2; TEXT-TRANSFORM: none; TEXT-INDENT: 0px; LETTER-SPACING: normal; DISPLAY: inline !important; FONT-FAMILY: ; WHITE-SPACE: normal; ORPHANS: 2; FLOAT: none; COLOR: ; WORD-SPACING: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px"><FONT
style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #f1f2f6" color=#333333
face=Tahoma></FONT></SPAN> </DIV>
<DIV><A title=https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2013/01/farewell-aaron-swartz
href="https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2013/01/farewell-aaron-swartz">https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2013/01/farewell-aaron-swartz</A></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 21px; WIDOWS: 2; TEXT-TRANSFORM: none; TEXT-INDENT: 0px; LETTER-SPACING: normal; DISPLAY: inline !important; FONT-FAMILY: ; WHITE-SPACE: normal; ORPHANS: 2; FLOAT: none; COLOR: ; WORD-SPACING: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px"><FONT
face="Lucida Sans Unicode"><FONT
style="FONT-SIZE: 10.5pt"></FONT></FONT></SPAN> </DIV>
<DIV><SPAN
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 21px; WIDOWS: 2; TEXT-TRANSFORM: none; TEXT-INDENT: 0px; LETTER-SPACING: normal; DISPLAY: inline !important; FONT-FAMILY: ; WHITE-SPACE: normal; ORPHANS: 2; FLOAT: none; COLOR: ; WORD-SPACING: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px"><FONT
face="Lucida Sans Unicode"><FONT
style="FONT-SIZE: 10.5pt"></FONT></FONT></SPAN> </DIV>
<DIV><SPAN
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 21px; WIDOWS: 2; TEXT-TRANSFORM: none; TEXT-INDENT: 0px; LETTER-SPACING: normal; DISPLAY: inline !important; FONT-FAMILY: ; WHITE-SPACE: normal; ORPHANS: 2; FLOAT: none; COLOR: ; WORD-SPACING: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px"><FONT
face="Lucida Sans Unicode"><FONT style="FONT-SIZE: 10.5pt">“Moreover, the
situation Aaron found himself in highlights the injustice of U.S. computer crime
laws, and particularly their punishment regimes. Aaron's act was undoubtedly
political activism, and taking such an act in the physical world would, at most,
have a meant he faced light penalties akin to trespassing as part of a political
protest. Because he used a computer, he instead faced long-term
incarceration.</FONT><SPAN class=Apple-converted-space><FONT
style="FONT-SIZE: 10.5pt"> “</FONT></SPAN></FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 21px; WIDOWS: 2; TEXT-TRANSFORM: none; TEXT-INDENT: 0px; LETTER-SPACING: normal; DISPLAY: inline !important; FONT-FAMILY: ; WHITE-SPACE: normal; ORPHANS: 2; FLOAT: none; COLOR: ; WORD-SPACING: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px"><FONT
face="Lucida Sans Unicode"><SPAN
class=Apple-converted-space></SPAN></FONT></SPAN> </DIV>
<DIV><SPAN
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 21px; WIDOWS: 2; TEXT-TRANSFORM: none; TEXT-INDENT: 0px; LETTER-SPACING: normal; DISPLAY: inline !important; FONT-FAMILY: ; WHITE-SPACE: normal; ORPHANS: 2; FLOAT: none; COLOR: ; WORD-SPACING: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px"><FONT
face="Lucida Sans Unicode"><SPAN class=Apple-converted-space>This is a sad time.
Although the laws are not directly responsible for his death, It is very sad
that an already complex person of great individual brilliance found his life
further complicated by reactive laws. </SPAN></FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 21px; WIDOWS: 2; TEXT-TRANSFORM: none; TEXT-INDENT: 0px; LETTER-SPACING: normal; DISPLAY: inline !important; FONT-FAMILY: ; WHITE-SPACE: normal; ORPHANS: 2; FLOAT: none; COLOR: ; WORD-SPACING: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px"><FONT
face="Lucida Sans Unicode"><SPAN
class=Apple-converted-space></SPAN></FONT></SPAN> </DIV>
<DIV><SPAN
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 21px; WIDOWS: 2; TEXT-TRANSFORM: none; TEXT-INDENT: 0px; LETTER-SPACING: normal; DISPLAY: inline !important; FONT-FAMILY: ; WHITE-SPACE: normal; ORPHANS: 2; FLOAT: none; COLOR: ; WORD-SPACING: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px"><FONT
face="Lucida Sans Unicode"><SPAN class=Apple-converted-space>Thank you Aaron
Schwartz for your contribution to the Internet and to internet
freedom.</SPAN></FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Ian Peter</DIV></DIV></DIV></BODY></HTML>