Aaron Swartz
Image: Wikimedia Commons/Daniel J. Sieradski
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This weekend, the Internet world mourned one of its heroes: Aaron Swartz, 26, a prodigy, programmer and well-known Internet activist, who hanged himself in his New York apartment on Friday. Swartz was to face an imminent trial for having downloaded some 4 million articles from JSTOR, a not-for-profit scholarly archive hosted by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). He faced extraordinarily severe charges — see here and here — carrying a possible penalty of 35 years in prison, and more than US$1 million in fines. Swartz is reported to have suffered from serious depression, but some — including his immediate family — have explicitly alleged that the pending charges contributed to his suicide. (Btw; serious depression is more common than one might think; see ‘Global survey reveals impact of disability‘ though few commit suicide.)
Online commentators have expressed indignation at the disproportion between the charges and Swartz’s alleged act. Lawrence Lessig, a law researcher at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, has posted a must-read analysis here. Alex Stamos, an expert witness for the defence in the case, also argues that the charges were over the top. Other analyses worth reading include those from Glenn Greenwald and from The Economist.
In a statement, Swartz’s family said: “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. The US Attorney’s office pursued an exceptionally harsh array of charges, carrying potentially over 30 years in prison, to punish an alleged crime that had no victims.”
Rafael Reif, the president of MIT, in a statement yesterday said: “I want to express very clearly that I and all of us at MIT are extremely saddened by the death of this promising young man who touched the lives of so many. It pains me to think that MIT played any role in a series of events that have ended in tragedy.“ He also announced that he had asked Hal Abelson, a leading computer scientist, to assess MIT’s response in the case. JSTOR also released a statement, which mentioned its widely appreciated decision not to pursue charges in the case after Swartz returned the files he had taken.
Meanwhile, a campaign has also started on Twitter calling for researchers to post their papers openly online in reaction and commemoration — at hashtag #pdftribute.
In passing, Swartz was a past invitee to Science Foo Camp, an annual invitation-only informal gathering of hundreds of leading scientists, technologists and other leading creative lights, organized by Nature in collaboration with Google and O’Reilly Media — see here and here. See Swartz’s own account of part of the 2007 meet here.
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12 Comments
Add CommentIs anyone denying he broke the law? Or are they saying he should have been cut a special deal because he was a VIP? Rather the latter I think. Not a persuasive argument. I believe he was offered a deal of one year in prison and chose instead to kill himself. This was not the prosecutor's fault.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWhat's with all of these mysterious hanging "suicides"?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWhen it was leaked that a Call Girl service in Washington had a long list of the political & business elites, first one of the girls who threatened to name customers, died by "suicide" by hanging. And a few months later the madam of the service showed up on a talk show, adamant that she was upbeat and "no-way she way going to hang herself" and then a few days later she was found dead "suicide by hanging.
And then this nurse in England who was duped into the Australian DJ hoax perpetrated on the Royal Family while Kate Middleton was in hospital. And she was found with "injuries to her wrist" and she "committed suicide by hanging". And this in spite of easy access to good drugs to do the job pleasantly. And women RARELY commit suicide by hanging. About the only time they do that is in prisons & psych hospitals where all other options are prevented.
Curious how the show Mentalist has an ongoing series of shows of a super-rich Washington connected elite had his secretary "commit suicide by hanging" when she was going to inform on what a sleazoid criminal he was, and corrupt politicos make sure there are "no questions asked".
So the prosecution pulls out all stops to prosecute this poor fellow, but refuse to consider EVEN INVESTIGATING the graft, corruption and illegal transactions of super-elites who caused the financial meltdown, causing untold suffering & even death to millions worldwide. $trillions of wealth from the poor & middle class, especially pensions, disappeared. No charges for that however:
amazon.com/Griftopia-Bankers-Politicians-Audacious-American/dp/0385529961/
rollingstone.com/politics/news/the-real-housewives-of-wall-street-look-whos-cashing-in-on-the-bailout-20110411
No-one is denying that he broke the law. The suggestion is that the law is unjust in the severity of the penalties it allows.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI feel bad for him. There's no denying that he broke the law, but we need to analyse this at a deeper level. I believe he has a valid point that education should be free and should carry no price tag. Maybe its time we stop blaming him and concentrate on the major issue. Every year, many bright young minds miss out on the top institutions due to financial reasons. Even though the so called scholarships are there, the number is nowhere near the actual number required.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thislaw should not be looked at so rigidly as to contradict common sense
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisSomething must change with the current law that prohibits people from accessing the results of research work they fund with their own (tax) money. The law that allows for such a dysfunctional mechanism between science institutions and the public to exist is fundamentally flawed. People shouldn't sponsor research they can't have free access to later on.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisJStor Is a bit 'last century' as is the whole business of academic publishing...in which volunteer reviewers, authors and research institutions are determined to lock up knowledge and sell it whatever the quality. In the sciences this probably does not matter because science is heavily institutionalised. But in the humanities, it puts up a pay wall which makes access for individuals costly.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisOf course it does make access easier than it is to the massive collection of old pre 1990 science journals housed for instance in Manchester (UK) University Library, some more one hundred years old. But science of course only exists in the present. So they are apparently of no value. Again this is not true for the humanities. But I have not yet found the stack of these in Manchester.
My view then is ripping off JStore on MIT's sub is not particularly helpful especially by a guy who presumably knew that, like ATM's, detecting peaks in use is one of the security measures it would take. However outside science, putting knowledge in the public domain after a given grace period which one of my professional bodies does might be a good idea.
Read the analyses of this prosecutorial overreach, which itself may possibly be criminal. He had downloaded info to which which he had legitimate access, and nothing else. He had sent it nowhere. It was an imaginary
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this"crime".
Wow how can you call yourself outside the box? Then world banking system was near collapse by the activities of a handful of unlawful greedy individuals and so far as I know no one has received a sentence approaching what he was facing. America is rapidly becoming a police state, hence widespread disrespect for the law.Probably should have cut off the finger he used to hit the download button..re sharia law, seems just neh?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIt's called Civil Disobedience.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThe thing about civil disobedience is that you go into it knowing you may serve the time.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisNo one made him kill himself. He chose to of his own free will. If he was depressed, then his family or friends should have done something to get him help. I know the ACLU has made it very difficult to force someone to get help, but it is still possible.
Another "suicide" by hanging, last week. Kamran Faisal, An official in Pakistan who was investigating recent corruption allegations against the Prime Minister. Marks on body consistent with a struggle.
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