http://www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/la-me-0113-aaron-swartz-20130113,0,5232490.story
QuoteAaron Swartz, who co-founded Reddit and became an Internet folk hero for fighting to make online content free to the public, committed suicide Friday. He was 26.
Swartz hanged himself in his Brooklyn, N.Y., apartment, said a statement released by his family and his girlfriend.
"Aaron's commitment to social justice was profound, and defined his life," the statement said. "He used his prodigious skills as a programmer and technologist not to enrich himself but to make the Internet and the world a fairer, better place."
On his blog, Swartz had written of his history of depression.
He was a Harvard University fellow studying ethics when he was charged in 2011 with stealing nearly 5 million articles from a computer archive at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
He faced 13 felony charges, including wire fraud, computer fraud and unlawfully obtaining information from a protected computer. Prosecutors said he intended to distribute the articles on file-sharing websites.
Swartz pleaded not guilty, and his trial in federal court was scheduled to begin next month. If convicted, he could have faced decades in prison and steep fines.
On Saturday, his family and girlfriend called his death "the product of a criminal justice system rife with intimidation and prosecutorial overreach" and blamed decisions by the Massachusetts U.S. attorney's office and MIT for contributing to his death.
Some legal experts believe the charges are unfounded since Swartz had been a university fellow, which gave him the right to access the articles.
In 2011, Carmen M. Ortiz, the U.S. attorney for Massachusetts, defended the charges, telling the New York Times: "Stealing is stealing, whether you use a computer command or a crowbar, and whether you take documents, data or dollars."
The Electronic Frontier Foundation, a San Francisco-based digital rights group, called him "an extraordinary hacker and activist."
"Aaron did more than almost anyone to make the Internet a thriving ecosystem for open knowledge, and to keep it that way," the foundation said in a tribute on its website.
On Saturday, American historian Rick Perlstein, who was a friend, called Swartz a philosopher as well as an activist. Swartz had also co-founded the political action group Demand Progress, which campaigns against Internet censorship.
"He had this feeling for data and what it could do, how to master it instead of letting it master us," Perlstein told The Times. "He just insisted on and struggled to live a life of maximal authenticity and integrity."
Born in 1986 in Chicago, Swartz created his first Web application — an online encyclopedia that operated much like Wikipedia — when he was 13.
High school bored him, he later said. After his freshman year, he studied at home and took community college classes that included logic and number theory.
At 14, he helped develop the software behind RSS feeds, which distribute content over the Internet.
He was soon working on such major projects as creating universal ways to exchange information through a group founded by Tim Berners-Lee, the computer scientist considered the father of the World Wide Web.
As a freshman at Stanford University, he studied sociology but left after a year because "I didn't find it a very intellectual atmosphere," he later said.
Swartz moved to Cambridge, where he began to work on a project that in 2005 turned into the social news website Reddit, which taps "the wisdom of the crowds" by letting users submit and rank news and other online content.
Conde Nast purchased Reddit the next year for a figure insiders put at less than $5 million, Forbes reported in November.
In a 2007 speech called "How to Get a Job Like Mine," given at a computer conference, Swartz gave such advice as "be curious," "say yes to everything" and "assume nobody else has any idea what they're doing either."
Swartz is survived by his parents, Robert and Susan Swartz; his younger brothers, Noah and Ben; and his partner, Taren Stinebrickner-Kauffman.
So riddle me this - why are we supposed to all be sadden by his death* beyond the fact that he is someone a) who took his own life, b) was young and c) was apparently very bright? By all accounts he seems to have had a weak sense of what constitutes illegal activities.
*as seen by outpourings in my facebook newsfeed and opinion articles
Ed Anger hates Reddit.
I think garbon is unhappy cause the guy dissed Stanford.
I never heard of him, don't know what Reddit actually does and have no problem jailing hackers.
I still don't know what a reddit is.
Quote from: Razgovory on January 16, 2013, 08:29:32 PM
I never heard of him, don't know what Reddit actually does and have no problem jailing hackers.
Ditto
Reddit frightens and confuses me.
Quote from: garbon on January 16, 2013, 07:27:55 PMSo riddle me this - why are we supposed to all be sadden by his death* beyond the fact that he is someone a) who took his own life, b) was young and c) was apparently very bright? By all accounts he seems to have had a weak sense of what constitutes illegal activities.
His story highlights the idiocy of today's IP laws. He was also a genius who not only founded Reddit but also invented a whole lot of stuff used by the Internet today.
This makes me more saddened about his death than I would have been if for example you dropped dead right now (as you seem to be fulfilling no apparent purpose for the society).
Quote from: Razgovory on January 16, 2013, 08:29:32 PM
I think garbon is unhappy cause the guy dissed Stanford.
Doubtful, why would I care about that?
slavs put a lot of unnecessary "the"s in their English
Quote from: sbr on January 16, 2013, 11:30:15 PM
Reddit frightens and confuses me.
It's so bland, normal and safe though :huh:
Reddit is lame, and reddit activism is embarrassing.
Quote from: Tamas on January 17, 2013, 03:12:18 AM
slavs put a lot of unnecessary "the"s in their English
Quite the contrary - I think the stereotype of a Slav who speaks poor English is no use of "a" or "the" whatsover (since Slavic languages do not have prepositions).
By the way, assuming it was a dig at me, could you point out where I used any unnecessary "the"s?
Quote from: Martinus on January 17, 2013, 03:49:56 AM
Quote from: Tamas on January 17, 2013, 03:12:18 AM
slavs put a lot of unnecessary "the"s in their English
Quite the contrary - I think the stereotype of a Slav who speaks poor English is no use of "a" or "the" whatsover (since Slavic languages do not have prepositions).
By the way, assuming it was a dig at me, could you point out where I used any unnecessary "the"s?
"purpose for the society"
Quote from: Tamas on January 17, 2013, 03:50:47 AM
Quote from: Martinus on January 17, 2013, 03:49:56 AM
Quote from: Tamas on January 17, 2013, 03:12:18 AM
slavs put a lot of unnecessary "the"s in their English
Quite the contrary - I think the stereotype of a Slav who speaks poor English is no use of "a" or "the" whatsover (since Slavic languages do not have prepositions).
By the way, assuming it was a dig at me, could you point out where I used any unnecessary "the"s?
"purpose for the society"
I was talking about the Society of Jesus.
Quote from: Martinus on January 17, 2013, 02:26:18 AM
Quote from: garbon on January 16, 2013, 07:27:55 PMSo riddle me this - why are we supposed to all be sadden by his death* beyond the fact that he is someone a) who took his own life, b) was young and c) was apparently very bright? By all accounts he seems to have had a weak sense of what constitutes illegal activities.
His story highlights the idiocy of today's IP laws. He was also a genius who not only founded Reddit but also invented a whole lot of stuff used by the Internet today.
This makes me more saddened about his death than I would have been if for example you dropped dead right now (as you seem to be fulfilling no apparent purpose for the society).
Simply because you are brilliant and useful does not put you above the law. I guess this is a Euro thing or something, but a crime is a crime no matter who commits it. If you want to break a law to protest it, fine. It's called civil disobedience. Part of that means going to jail.
There is also a question of the penalty being disproportionate to the crime. He was facing 35 years in prison, which is insane. He probably would have got less if he murdered someone.
Quote from: Tamas on January 17, 2013, 03:12:18 AM
slavs put a lot of unnecessary "the"s in their English
They make this mistake during attempts at formal speech, during excited or drunken speech the opposite is the rule. And Marty, South Slavic languages have articles like nearly all Balkan languages.
I'd be surprised if Hungarian had articles, actually, at least any moreso than Turkish.
Quote from: Martinus on January 17, 2013, 04:46:20 AM
There is also a question of the penalty being disproportionate to the crime. He was facing 35 years in prison, which is insane. He probably would have got less if he murdered someone.
Apparently he was offered a deal of 6 months but would have to plead guilty to 13 felony charges. He declined (understandable, of course).
I'm not sure I'm understanding the arguments of he shouldn't have been charged as he was stealing to make a point, not to financially benefit nor that he should have gotten a pass because he "had written openly and movingly about his struggle with depression."
Quote from: Josephus on January 16, 2013, 10:42:56 PM
I still don't know what a reddit is.
I just checked it out. Not sure what the draw is.
He'll be on t-shirts and coffee mugs soon enough. I'm sure a rock band will dedicate something to him.
Sadly, I agree with Raz :Embarrass:
Quote from: Razgovory on January 17, 2013, 04:22:25 AM
Simply because you are brilliant and useful does not put you above the law. I guess this is a Euro thing or something, but a crime is a crime no matter who commits it.
It only matters to Euros if you're an artist or something. Roman Polanski, yes. Former head of state or other government official, ZOMG GO TO JAIL DR KISSINGER!
Quote from: Queequeg on January 17, 2013, 05:16:14 AM
Quote from: Tamas on January 17, 2013, 03:12:18 AM
slavs put a lot of unnecessary "the"s in their English
I'd be surprised if Hungarian had articles, actually, at least any moreso than Turkish.
The gypsies probably stole them. :(
Quote from: Martinus on January 17, 2013, 04:46:20 AM
There is also a question of the penalty being disproportionate to the crime. He was facing 35 years in prison, which is insane. He probably would have got less if he murdered someone.
Crimes. He committed 13 crimes. If sentences are served consecutively, they kinda add up. Wire fraud is sort of a serious crime.
I thought there was a lot of confusion about why the charges were brought since the guy had student privileges at MiT through Cambridge when he took the stuff, anyway. :unsure:
Quote from: merithyn on January 17, 2013, 01:24:16 PM
I thought there was a lot of confusion about why the charges were brought since the guy had student privileges at MiT through Cambridge when he took the stuff, anyway. :unsure:
That's why we have juries and judges.
So I went to reddit.
So, I see a bunch of links to stories. So, what is it, like a "what's trending?" website?
edit: Oh wait, i see, people just send links to reddit. it could be anything...sort of like a universal "timmay"?
Quote from: Josephus on January 17, 2013, 01:48:27 PM
So I went to reddit.
So, I see a bunch of links to stories. So, what is it, like a "what's trending?" website?
edit: Oh wait, i see, people just send links to reddit. it could be anything...sort of like a universal "timmay"?
And then there is something like bumping it up so trending are all articles that people like.
QuoteAaron Swartz Memorial Hackathon (SF Edition)
In memory of Aaron Swartz, and in coordination with a world-wide effort, Noisebridge will be hosting a hackathon starting Friday, January 25th, and continuing through Sunday, January 27th.
Aaron was a hacktivist and friend of many in our community. He helped create RSS 1.0; contributed to Creative Commons; was an early builder of Reddit, where he's often acknowledged as a co-founder; created the web.py framework; and more recently, became a data liberator, first with PACER and then with scholarly articles from JSTOR, both of which got him into trouble with the law.
Aaron's Demand Progress project helped stop SOPA, the Stop Online Piracy Act in the US, which threatened to have far reaching unintended consequences.
Aaron Swartz committed suicide on Jan. 11, 2013, but his work on making the world a better place should not die with him. Join us for two days of understanding his work and contributing to keep his memory and projects alive.
When: 7pm Jan. 25 - 7pm Jan. 27
What: Come learn new skills and work together on projects that Aaron would have liked. Themes include open information access, sharing and preserving human knowledge, hacking for social/political justice, and techno-activism.
Organizers: yan, shannon, mct
Remote collab: mailing list
The event is free, but we'll have donation boxes for purchasing food and project supplies. BYO-snacks-and-energy-drinks.
Quote from: garbon on January 17, 2013, 05:37:32 AM
Quote from: Martinus on January 17, 2013, 04:46:20 AM
There is also a question of the penalty being disproportionate to the crime. He was facing 35 years in prison, which is insane. He probably would have got less if he murdered someone.
Apparently he was offered a deal of 6 months but would have to plead guilty to 13 felony charges. He declined (understandable, of course).
Assuming this is accurate - and I have no reason to believe otherwise - this does highlight a serious flaw in the US justice system. Dracononian penalties are abused by over-zealous prosecutors to coerce pleas. Even a defendant with very meritorious defenses is unlikely to risk the roulette spin of a jury trial against the United States attorney when the consequence of losing the rest of one's free life. Make the tradeoff stark enough, and effectively the constitutional right to trial is vitiated.