[governance] Sad death of Aaron Schwartz

Gideon gideonrop at gmail.com
Sat Jan 12 23:33:02 EST 2013


Indeed a sad time on the passing of an inspiring, incredible person who had
courageously achieved what many at that tender age wouldnt have. Sad he has
passed on when the vibrant internet constituency is working hard to fight
for free internet.

RIP Aaron Schwartz and thank you for what you were able to achieve.
http://edition.cnn.com/2013/01/12/us/new-york-reddit-founder-suicide/index.html

Gideon Rop,
DotConnectAfrica

On Sat, Jan 12, 2013 at 11:44 PM, Ian Peter <ian.peter at ianpeter.com> wrote:

>   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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