Aaron Swartz died

[thane]

I hadn't heard of this until it was mentioned on a political blog I follow. Sure sounds like government over-reach. I could see something like this being punished by a low $10K fine, but jail time and $1M? Absurd. And the sad conclusion:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aaron_Swartz

[bark_bark_bark]

sorry can you tell us what this thread is about in 1 or 2 paragraphs please. I see no point is reading a whole wikipedia article about political junk.

[thane]

Swartz was facing federal prosecution for hacking the JSTOR system to download documents. He killed himself. The article is mostly about the case.

You should read more.

[darkcity]

Update: Go read Lessig: "He was brilliant, and funny. A kid genius. A soul, a conscience, the source of a question I have asked myself a million times: What would Aaron think? That person is gone today, driven to the edge by what a decent society would only call bullying. I get wrong. But I also get proportionality. And if you don’t get both, you don’t deserve to have the power of the United States government behind you."

[Bruce B]

Web activist Aaron Swartz is dead. He hanged himself yesterday evening.

~~~

Some people are terrified of prison. In their fear, such people think there is no happiness in their future. If certain people cannot perceive happiness in the future, they become depressed.

The depression is aggrevated greatly when he thinks there is only pain and suffering in his future life in prison.

~

[Sylvander]

QUOTE:
"it is reported that he hanged himself".
Is there any evidence that he hanged himself rather than he was hanged by others?

[thane]

Depending on where he was sent, the prison may well have been a terrifying place.

Apparently the government wanted to make an example of him. If anything his death was the opposite of what was intended. Now the government just looks cruel.

[postfs1]

Maybe the information from that page is not real, because wikipedia is not the library of historical truth. Perhaps the victim simply has got under some next blockade.

A spokeswoman for New York's Medical Examiner reported that he had hanged himself.

In many situations Medical = Persecutor, due to different blockades. The source of information is from the real side which executes kidnapping, due to possession a licenses(armor and guns - as a type of license). Good camouflage was doing its job.

Perhaps the victim didn't defend persecutors by own money. 'to defend' is not equal to 'to buy'.

[Bruce B]

QUOTE:
"it is reported that he hanged himself".
Is there any evidence that he hanged himself rather than he was hanged by others?

None that I know of.

I'd have hung myself and make it look like murder. Put the wrap on Mr. Mean. He already established a record of making me unhappy. Now I want to make him unhappy.

But how?

1) send some letters around saying I'm afraid Mr. Mean is going to do something bad to me, he's been threatening me.

2) leave the roll of rope from which I made the noose in his garage. Also put the receipt in some appropriate place. Put the same duct tape I used to tape my mouth in a drawer of his.

3) find a time when I know Mr. Mean has no alibi

4) go home, get the big block of ice out of the freezer.

5) go into the garage, wrap the rope around my neck, stand on the ice block and kick it out from under me

6) by the time they find me, the ice will have evaporated and they will never believe I did it myself

~

I went to the shrink yesterday, she thinks I'm fine, nothing wrong with me!

She even said, " Bruce, any one of these medications you're taking could cause these symptoms."

Something on the list I gave her caught her attention, she said, "You take these two? You will never wake up."

"Well, I have felt groggy lately."

Spotting something she didn't expect on my list, she asked, "Which doctor gives you these?"

"No doctor, I buy them over the counter from the unlicensed pharmacist at the corner of Fifth and Western."

"I didn't know there's a pharmacy there."

"It is not a store front. He's standing on the street corner."

Summary:

Things can be made to appear to happened one way, and not at all the way it really happened. If anyone doesn't believe me, check Jackie Onassis' memoirs.

~

[thane]

Swartz's family calls his death a suicide, but blames the prosecution:

http://rememberaaronsw.tumblr.com/post/ ... r-of-aaron

[Sylvander]

The Nazis showed how to do various nasty things, and no doubt those things have been repeated many times since.
e.g.
The Forced Suicide of Field Marshall Rommel, 1944
It was officially announced that "his death was due to his battle wounds".

[postfs1]

The Nazis showed how to do various nasty things, and no doubt those things have been repeated many times since.
e.g.
The Forced Suicide of Field Marshall Rommel, 1944
It was officially announced that "his death was due to his battle wounds".

I guess that fascist sect is very very old.

Registered laborants force victims to execute suicide through use of special chemical means. Even if some victim doesn't have a forces to execute active actions in the place, what belongs to laborants, laborants compel victim to cooperate. But i don't know is such a situation everywhere where citizens are victims or not everywhere.

[NeroVance]

Another example of things government corruption doesn't like being attacked in such a small time. Something stinks about this, and makes me think of Kevin's case in the 90s.

[01micko]

I believe the true shame belongs to MIT.

RIP.

[Dewbie]

From Lessig Blog:
[quote]The “property

[starhawk]

My US$0.02...

I was born in 1986, the same year that the law was created, under which Mr. Swartz was prosecuted ("Don't Copy That Floppy", anyone?).

I have, since I first learned how to use a computer, downloaded many, many things. I've done stuff that I probably shouldn't have. 99.9%, at minimum, was what I have always believed was legal -- pictures, Linux distros, MIDI music, public domain MP3s from Newgrounds, free software, etc.

I've probably downloaded things I shouldn't have. If I have, it's been long enough that I can't remember a specific example, but I'm not going to pay a forensic computer specialist over at the local Cop Shop to tell me what I shouldn't have done.

I think if someone is being prosecuted for what (as I understand it) amounts to "downloading too many free files" -- I think we've crossed some sort of very nasty line into very nasty territory.

I hope I haven't broken any laws, with my downloading. Two days ago, I was convinced I was okay in that respect. I knew, with near-absolute certainty, that I was operating within the law.

Now I'm not so sure.

[sickgut]

[quote="Dewbie"]From Lessig Blog:
[quote]The “property

[darkcity]

down with Mr Mean!
here's a good vid of Swartz talking about the Progressive Change Campaign when he was 22.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JUt5gjqNI1w

[starhawk]

Two days ago, I was convinced I was okay in that respect. I knew, with near-absolute certainty, that I was operating within the law.

Now I'm not so sure.

Upon reflection, I think this is actually the point, that we are moving to a fear based system here -- and it's not just in/for the US, it is something we will export to the whole world. Not because we should (we shouldn't) but because we can -- and because we think we're better than everyone else.

The world is mad as a hatter.

[mini-jaguar]

Depending on where he was sent, the prison may well have been a terrifying place.

Apparently the government wanted to make an example of him. If anything his death was the opposite of what was intended. Now the government just looks cruel.

They would also have looked cruel if they had given him 35 years in jail, which is what they were asking as a minimum if he did not plead guilty, for downloading non-copyrighted legal documents and (copyrighted or not) scientific papers, which can only be used for study and research anyways.