[governance] Sad death of Aaron Schwartz

[Ian Peter]

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.

http://boingboing.net/2013/01/12/rip-aaron-swartz.html


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

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2012/09/feds-go-overboard-in-prosecuting-information-activist/

And in recent hours Electronic Frontier Foundation has posted the following


https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2013/01/farewell-aaron-swartz


“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. “

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. 

Thank you Aaron Schwartz for your contribution to the Internet and to internet freedom.

Ian Peter
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