This morning, hundreds of links to copyright-protected journal articles have appeared on Twitter in remembrance of Aaron Swartz, posted by members of the academic community. The call to the protest appears to have started on Reddit, where researcher Micah Allen said, “a fitting tribute to Aaron might be a mass protest uploading of copyright-protected research articles. Dump them on Gdocs, tweet the link. Think of the great blu-ray encoding protest but on a bigger scale for research articles.” Early this morning the Anonymous Twitter account also announced its support for the action.
Please share: Academics posting their papers online in tribute to Aaron Swartz using hashtag #pdftribute #ICYMI
— Anonymous (@YourAnonNews) January 13, 2013
Swartz, who hanged himself in his Brooklyn apartment this past Friday, had been under federal indictment since 2011. He was charged with illegally downloading more than 4 million documents from the academic journal database JSTOR on the campus of MIT in late 2010. Although JSTOR refused to pursue the matter, the prosecutors in Massachusetts did not, resulting in a federal case against Swartz which, if found guilty, could have resulted in up to 35 years in prison and millions of dollars in fines. In the wake of Swartz’s suicide his family and mentor Lawrence Lessig have at least partially blamed his death on the government’s relentless pursuit of the 26-year old, and one expert witness who was going to testify on his behalf has argued that Swartz’s actions hardly called for the criminal charges brought against him.
This is just one in a flood of online reactions to Swartz’s death. A large file of JSTOR articles is currently on the torrent site the Pirate Bay in his memory, and early Saturday evening several petitions were posted to the White House’s online system We the People. One of them calls for the removal of District Attorney Carmen Ortiz (the prosecutor who pursued Aaron’s case), and one which calls for a White House pardon for Swartz, though he was never tried or convicted of any crimes. Swartz’s family has also created a website for remembrances of Aaron.
At 26, Swartz already had a long list of achievements in wide-ranging fields. He was one of the early participants in Y Combinator, and was instrumental in the early days of Reddit, when his small company Infogami merged with the founders of the internet giant we know today. He also co-authored the RSS 1.0 specification at the age of 14, and in 2010 founded Demand Progress, a non-profit dedicated to fighting the bills which would become SOPA and PIPA. Demand Progress’ work fighting SOPA is widely seen as being instrumental to the internet protests which resulted in its defeat. The case against Swartz and the circumstances of his death has lead at least one academic to suggest a copyright reform act named in Swartz’s honor.
If we can have a copyright act named after Sonny Bono, we can have a copyright reform act named for Aaron Swartz. In a better world, maybe.
— Matthew Green (@matthew_d_green) January 12, 2013
Can’t find the info anywhere. A link would be good. Thanks!
R.I.P. Aaron Swartz – Repost this if you believe in the movement.
“Information is power. But like all power, there are those who want to keep it for themselves. The world’s entire scientific and cultural heritage, published over centuries in books and journals, is increasingly being digitized and locked up by a handful of private corporations. Want to read the papers featuring the most famous results of the sciences? You’ll need to send enormous amounts to publishers like Reed Elsevier.
There are those struggling to change this. The Open Access Movement has fought valiantly to ensure that scientists do not sign their copyrights away but instead ensure their work is published on the Internet, under terms that allow anyone to access it. But even under the best scenarios, their work will only apply to things published in the future. Everything up until now will have been lost.
That is too high a price to pay. Forcing academics to pay money to read the work of their colleagues? Scanning entire libraries but only allowing the folks at Google to read them? Providing scientific articles to those at elite universities in the First World, but not to children in the Global South? It’s outrageous and unacceptable.
“I agree,” many say, “but what can we do? The companies hold the copyrights, they make enormous amounts of money by charging for access, and it’s perfectly legal — there’s nothing we can do to stop them.” But there is something we can, something that’s already being done: we can fight back.
Those with access to these resources — students, librarians, scientists — you have been given a privilege. You get to feed at this banquet of knowledge while the rest of the world is locked out. But you need not — indeed, morally, you cannot — keep this privilege for yourselves. You have a duty to share it with the world. And you have: trading passwords with colleagues, filling download requests for friends.
Meanwhile, those who have been locked out are not standing idly by. You have been sneaking through holes and climbing over fences, liberating the information locked up by the publishers and sharing them with your friends.
But all of this action goes on in the dark, hidden underground. It’s called stealing or piracy, as if sharing a wealth of knowledge were the moral equivalent of plundering a ship and murdering its crew. But sharing isn’t immoral — it’s a moral imperative. Only those blinded by greed would refuse to let a friend make a copy.
Large corporations, of course, are blinded by greed. The laws under which they operate require it — their shareholders would revolt at anything less. And the politicians they have bought off back them, passing laws giving them the exclusive power to decide who can make copies.
There is no justice in following unjust laws. It’s time to come into the light and, in the grand tradition of civil disobedience, declare our opposition to this private theft of public culture.
We need to take information, wherever it is stored, make our copies and share them with the world. We need to take stuff that’s out of copyright and add it to the archive. We need to buy secret databases and put them on the Web. We need to download scientific journals and upload them to file sharing networks. We need to fight for Guerilla Open Access.
With enough of us, around the world, we’ll not just send a strong message opposing the privatization of knowledge — we’ll make it a thing of the past. Will you join us?”
-Aaron Swartz
July 2008, Eremo, Italy
See if intelligent sleuths can figure out what is that they have in common so we can spot child rapists in the future? What is the common denominator?
Republican aide, Alan David Berlin, was arrested on charges that he wanted to engage in sex acts with a 15 year old boy while dressed in a panda costume.
Fox News producer Aaron Bruns pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 10 years for possessing child pornography.
Republican activist and former presidential campaign chairman Jeffrey Claude Bartleson was arrested on charges of sexually molesting a 5-year old boy.
Republican activist and former chairman of the Christian County Republicans Royce Fessenden pleaded guilty to two counts of first-degree child molestation and one count of second-degree statutory sodomy.
Republican parole board officer and former legislator George Christian (Chris) Ortloff pleaded guilty to attempting to lure 11- and 12-year-old girls to have sex with him.
Republican legislative aide Robert R. Groezinger pleaded guilty to possessing child pornography.
Republican legislator Robert A. McKee pleaded guilty to possessing child pornography.
Republican chief of staff Eric Feltner pleaded guilty to showing pornography to a 13-year old girl.
Republican presidential campaign official Matthew Joseph Elliott was convicted of sexual exploitation of a child.
Republican city councilman John Bryan killed himself after police began investigating allegations that he had molested three girls, including two of his adopted daughters, ages 12 and 15.
Republican legislator Ted Klaudt was charged with raping girls under the age of 16.
Republican city councilman Joseph Monteleone Jr. was found guilty of fondling underage girls.
Republican congressional aide Jeffrey Nielsen was arrested for having sex with a 14-year old boy.
Republican County Commissioner Patrick Lee McGuire surrendered to police after allegedly molesting girls between the ages of 8 and 13.
Republican prosecutor Larry Corrigan was arrested for soliciting sex from 13-year old girls.
Republican Mayor Jeffrey Kyle Randall was sentenced to 275 days in jail for molesting two boys — ages ten and 12 — during a six-year period.
Republican County Board Candidate Brent Schepp was charged with molesting a 14-year old girl and killed himself three days later.
Republican Congressman Mark Foley abruptly resigned from Congress after “sexually explicit” emails surfaced showing him flirting with a 16-year old boy.
Republican executive Randall Casseday of the conservative Washington Times newspaper pleaded guilty to soliciting sex from a 13-year old girl on the internet.
Republican chairman of the Oregon Christian Coalition Lou Beres confessed to molesting a 13-year old girl.
Republican County Constable Larry Dale Floyd pleaded guilty to charges of soliciting sex from an 8-year old girl. Floyd has repeatedly won elections for Denton County, Texas, constable.
Republican judge Mark Pazuhanich pleaded no contest to fondling a 10-year old girl and was sentenced to 10 years probation.
Republican Party leader Bobby Stumbo was arrested for having sex with a 5-year old boy.
Republican petition drive manager Tom Randall pleaded guilty to molesting two girls under the age of 14, one of them the daughter of an associate in the petition business.
Republican County Chairman Armando Tebano pleaded guilty to fondling a 14-year-old girl.
Republican teacher and former city councilman John Collins pleaded guilty to sexually molesting 13 and 14 year old girls.
Republican campaign worker Mark Seidensticker is a convicted child molester.
Republican Mayor Philip Giordano is serving a 37-year sentence in federal prison for sexually abusing 8- and 10-year old girls.
Republican Mayor Tom Adams was arrested for distributing child pornography over the internet.
Republican Mayor John Gosek was arrested on charges of soliciting sex from two 15-year old girls.
Republican County Commissioner David Swartz pleaded guilty to molesting two girls under the age of 11 and was sentenced to 8 years in prison.
Republican legislator Edison Misla Aldarondo was sentenced to 10 years in prison for raping his daughter between the ages of 9 and 17.
Republican Committeeman John R. Curtain was charged with molesting a teenage boy and unlawful sexual contact with a minor.
Republican anti-abortion activist Howard Scott Heldreth is a convicted child rapist in Florida.
Republican zoning supervisor, Boy Scout leader and Lutheran church president Dennis L. Rader pleaded guilty to performing a sexual act on an 11-year old girl he murdered.
Republican anti-abortion activist Nicholas Morency pleaded guilty to possessing child pornography on his computer and offering a bounty to anybody who murders an abortion doctor.
Republican pastor Mike Hintz, rape……
There were hundreds more….
i don’t believe for a second that he killed himself. a guy who tried to help children get free education, stood up for human rights and with no signs of manic depression all of a sudden kills himself….BULL CRAP! secret services did it! this is so sad. we should hold a protest for this!
he exposed obama’s kill list and prevented big corporations from making more money off the back of the innocent, yeah, there’s the motive right there!
RIP Aaron Swartz
Do you think 35 years and a million dollar fine was fair punishment for downloading JSTOR docs onto his laptop ? And do you think JSTOR should be available freely to the public ? And how do you feel about the outrageous price it charges for journals ?
Aaron Swartz would have faced 50+ years in prison for downloading and distributing scholarly articles online
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ali-hayat/the-prosecution-of-aaron-swartz_b_2465851.html
Goldman Sachs won’t be prosecuted for their crimes against our economy and our society
http://www.businessweek.com/news/2012-08-09/justice-finds-no-viable-basis-for-charges-against-goldman
I just heard on the radio show Coast to Coast that the feds were trying to put him in prison for decades for something that at best was a misdemeanor. Also, US Attorney Carmen Ortiz was in charge of this witch-hunt wants to be the governor of Massachusetts and there is now a petition online to have her removed from her office. I didn’t hear what site this petition is on for me to sign. Does anyone know?
Try going to any of these sites…if THEY ALLOW YOU TO..!
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Oh for sure. I just read a non reply from a very big IDIOT!
supposedly he killed himself
so you automatically just believe he committed suicide because they said he did? I said supposedly he killed himself, meaning he might have or not. When did mere questions become conspiracy theories?
R.I.P. Aaron Swartz – Repost this if you believe in the movement.
“Information is power. But like all power, there are those who want to keep it for themselves. The world’s entire scientific and cultural heritage, published over centuries in books and journals, is increasingly being digitized and locked up by a handful of private corporations. Want to read the papers featuring the most famous results of the sciences? You’ll need to send enormous amounts to publishers like Reed Elsevier.
There are those struggling to change this. The Open Access Movement has fought valiantly to ensure that scientists do not sign their copyrights away but instead ensure their work is published on the Internet, under terms that allow anyone to access it. But even under the best scenarios, their work will only apply to things published in the future. Everything up until now will have been lost.
That is too high a price to pay. Forcing academics to pay money to read the work of their colleagues? Scanning entire libraries but only allowing the folks at Google to read them? Providing scientific articles to those at elite universities in the First World, but not to children in the Global South? It’s outrageous and unacceptable.
“I agree,” many say, “but what can we do? The companies hold the copyrights, they make enormous amounts of money by charging for access, and it’s perfectly legal — there’s nothing we can do to stop them.” But there is something we can, something that’s already being done: we can fight back.
Those with access to these resources — students, librarians, scientists — you have been given a privilege. You get to feed at this banquet of knowledge while the rest of the world is locked out. But you need not — indeed, morally, you cannot — keep this privilege for yourselves. You have a duty to share it with the world. And you have: trading passwords with colleagues, filling download requests for friends.
Meanwhile, those who have been locked out are not standing idly by. You have been sneaking through holes and climbing over fences, liberating the information locked up by the publishers and sharing them with your friends.
But all of this action goes on in the dark, hidden underground. It’s called stealing or piracy, as if sharing a wealth of knowledge were the moral equivalent of plundering a ship and murdering its crew. But sharing isn’t immoral — it’s a moral imperative. Only those blinded by greed would refuse to let a friend make a copy.
Large corporations, of course, are blinded by greed. The laws under which they operate require it — their shareholders would revolt at anything less. And the politicians they have bought off back them, passing laws giving them the exclusive power to decide who can make copies.
There is no justice in following unjust laws. It’s time to come into the light and, in the grand tradition of civil disobedience, declare our opposition to this private theft of public culture.
We need to take information, wherever it is stored, make our copies and share them with the world. We need to take stuff that’s out of copyright and add it to the archive. We need to buy secret databases and put them on the Web. We need to download scientific journals and upload them to file sharing networks. We need to fight for Guerilla Open Access.
With enough of us, around the world, we’ll not just send a strong message opposing the privatization of knowledge — we’ll make it a thing of the past. Will you join us?”
-Aaron Swartz
July 2008, Eremo, Italy
To those of you who didn’t understand why I posted this; This is not an actual question seeking an answer for myself, I posted this as a survey and to spread the knowledge of what this man died for. I agree with Aaron.
What does this mean for the future of a free and open web?
Those words at the end of this article,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aaron_Swartz
what does it mean?
Socrates was sentenced to leave Athens because he spoke out against the authorities in Athens. He chose to commit suicide instead. Aaron was facing 30 years in prison by the authorities of his time and place and decided to take his life instead, for making information public.
(Taken directly from his wikipedia article) Aaron H. Swartz (November 8, 1986 – January 11, 2013) was an American computer programmer, writer, political organizer, and Internet activist.
Swartz was a member of the RSS-DEV Working Group that co-authored the “RSS 1.0″ specification of RSS, built the website framework web.py and created the architecture for the Open Library. In the early days of Reddit, Swartz’s Infogami and Reddit merged; the merger agreement made Swartz an equal partner in the merged company.
Swartz also focused on sociology, civic awareness and activism. In 2010 he joined the Harvard University Center for Ethics. He cofounded the online group Demand Progress (known for its campaign against the Stop Online Piracy Act) and later worked with U.S. and international activist groups Rootstrikers and Avaaz.
On January 6, 2011, Swartz was arrested by federal authorities in connection with systematic downloading of academic journal articles from JSTOR. Swartz opposed JSTOR’s practice of compensating publishers, rather than authors, out of the fees it charges for access to articles. Swartz contended that JSTOR’s fees limited access to academic work produced at American colleges and universities.
Two years later, on the morning of January 11, 2013, Swartz was found hanged in his Crown Heights, Brooklyn apartment where he reportedly committed suicide. Following his death, federal prosecutors in Boston dismissed the charges against him.
For those too lazy to read, Aaron Swartz was a prominent figure on the internet. He has especially adamant about the sharing of information. Early in 2011 Aaron accessed (by completely legitimate means) the JSTOR database. JSTOR stores academic articles for universities. He downloaded several million academic articles, and intended to share them for free on the internet. He was arrested. Had Aaron been found guilty he would have faced 35 years in a federal prison. A few days ago he hanged himself.
Was Aaron in the right?
Did he deserve the sentence levelled against him?
Would it change your mind if you knew that neither JSTOR no MIT(the university from which he accessed the database) wanted to press charges (i.e. it was entirely the federal government)?
Aaron Swartz was pushed to suicide by District Attorney Carmen Ortiz and Stephen Heymann when he downloaded too many files from JSTOR, an academic journal database that release free journals. Aaron Swartz was an activist that fought against SOPA and PIPA. Fought for social justice.
He committed suicide after over 2 years of continued harrassment from secret service and District Attorney Ortiz’s office. The office tried to put him in jail for 35 years for downloading too many files.
Westboro Baptist Church originally planned to protest at Aaron Swartz’s funeral but cancelled.
How do you explain that Athiests?
@Dave: SOPA and PIPA were bills that wanted to give government the right to shut down any websites they dont’ like and have all your personal data.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/art-brodsky/pipa-and-sopa-were-stoppe_b_1230818.html
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/art-brodsky/pipa-and-sopa-were-stoppe_b_1230818.html
http://www.cnn.com/2013/01/15/tech/web/aaron-swartz-internet/index.html
He helped founded Reddit, worked on RSS, an extremely open activists for an open internet.
He was being sued by the US government for downloading journals. The DA Ortiz wanted to get him 30 years in prison and $1million fine for downloading.
After all, since this is a unconstitutional plutocracy and not a constitutional republic, we can assume that some big-shot corporate whore did some undercover deal with the FBI to cover up their previous corruption files.
After all, that’s what China did to one of it’s dissidents.
Last night after being awake for close to 30 hours I had a nightmare. I’ve had nightmares before and just shrugged them off but this one was just so vivid and clear I couldn’t. I can’t go into too much detail because it’s just too painful to picture it but i’ll give you the abridged version. I’m a big gamer. I spend most of my day on my computer. In the dream I was at my computer, my room was really dark and depressing. 3 toddlers walked in and started talking to me asking me to hang out. One was my three year old brother. I think one of them knocked over my computer and I guess I started to chase them with a Machete… Well… The dream ended with me… Stabbing them. But it wasn’t it. They didn’t die they just cried and then asked me to stop and play with them. As they crawled to their toys I just screamed… And cried and I couldn’t take it. I woke up and ran to see my little brother. I gave him a hug and just hung out with him for a while. I talked to my mum and went outside to play with my dog for a while. I only slept for an hour and I was still devastated. After going back to bed and waking up 9 hours later I can still feel this intense feeling of guilt and dread. Almost as if it was real. And it did feel real. The night before I was watching some videos about Aaron Swartz commiting suicide and a few things about death. I also was playing Far Cry 3 (where the knife is a machete) so i guess I understand where the dream came from. I just need to forget it so this feeling of dread will go away. I’m not a sociopath, I’m a nice person. I love my little bro more than anything and I’ve always hated hearing about child neglect. I guess i have two questions. Why did this of all dreams happen to me? And does anyone have any words of wisdom to help cope with or forget this dream?
Do you think he was a martyr for hackers? Do you think that he just ended his own life to avoid being in prison for 50 years? Do you think in cases like these the law has been getting out of hand?
How can locate all the edits on Wikipedia done by one specific editor? Specifically, I would like to find all the Wikipedia edits done by Aaron Swartz.
Thinking about how recently there have been a lot violent deaths, constant fights over religion, the recent suicide of Aaron Swartz and his sentence,ect…. i feel like the government is fighting against the people instead of FOR the people. Its hard for me not to be cynical about the future and the world my children will grow up in.
As a Redditor, I tend to keep up with a good bit of the news, and not so recently (/r/aww man, it really distracts you) Aaron Swartz, co-creator of Reddit commited suicide. My question is, why? What provoked his suicide?
Anonymous replaced US sentencing commission’s website with ‘a line is crossed’ and now i can’t get to the website.
Athiests how do you explain that?
US prosecutors harassed and bullied Aaron Swartz, an internet activist who fought against SOPA and PIPA , and now Aaron Swart committed suicide.
My teacher’s making us do a research project about Aaron Swartz. Can someone please tell me what happened to him? All I know is that he was getting sued for some ridiculous reason and hung himself to avoid an even more ridiculous prison sentence. Thanks.
Or does their family have to pay it?
Specifically wondering of what the outcome would be if the Aaron Schwartz case was not dismissed and he was found guilty.
Basically, people, with liberal viewpoints, who are active in the media and who have an impact on society and the way people think. I already have some : Jon Stewart, Steven Colbert, Bill Maher, Rachel Maddow, and the Huffington Post. If you can add anything to that I will be grateful.
Thank you.
I want to be straight, I am not a homophobic, but I don’t want to be gay, and when I masturbate (Which is regularly) I have the occasional men on men fantasy, but the thing is, the idea of taking it in the *** in disgusting, but when I masturbate I have a completely different opinion about it. I want to be straight, not bi-sexual, not homosexual. All I am at the moment is a sapiosexual (Intelligence arouses me.)
Bottom line, I have gay fantasies, and I want to be straight.
and I have a girlfriend, we haven’t gone far, but I am wonder if i have a girlfriend to hide the fact of my true sexuality, I feel as if I have to have kids so my legacy will continue.
I don’t want to be gay.
What is his manifesto ???
The autopsy report should tell us this, shouldn’t it? We could form some sort of estimate from the number of teeth left in his jaw, as well as the number of bones in his face that were broken. Torture, like anything else, is a step-by-step process, and takes a certain amount of time.
As has been said, you could eat a sandwich just in the amount of time it takes to strangle someone with a belt.
I’m thinking that because he got prosecuted, and was gonna face charges and be in jail he’d be in jail so he gave up.
Anybody know who the senator Aaron Swartz talked to in this episode? Swartz described the episode in a speech: ” I was at an event, and I was talking, and I got introduced to a U.S. senator, one of the strongest proponents of the original COICA bill, in fact. And I asked him why, despite being such a progressive, despite giving a speech in favor of civil liberties, why he was supporting a bill that would censor the Internet. And, you know, that typical politician smile he had suddenly faded from his face, and his eyes started burning this fiery red. And he started shouting at me, said, “Those people on the Internet, they think they can get away with anything! They think they can just put anything up there, and there’s nothing we can do to stop them! They put up everything! They put up our nuclear missiles, and they just laugh at us! Well, we’re going to show them! There’s got to be laws on the Internet! It’s got to be under control!” Anybody know who that senator was? Thanks and I’ll remember to choose a best answer.
I doubt it is Senator Cornyn because the senator Swartz talked to is described by Swartz, as quoted in my original post, as “being such a progressive.” Cornyn, a Republican from Texas, is not usually described as being a progressive.
Thank you
I know Aaron Swartz stopped SOPA, but is it completely over?
I feel like the reason why he was murdered is because he is involved in this anti SOPA and PIPA act, is it right or wrong?
Or the government killed him?
Should be read…Did Aaron Swartz really commit suicide?
Internet activist Aaron Swartz should have faced up to 35 years in prison and a fine of $1 million for downloading and uploading academic journal articles from JSTOR, maybe worth a few thousand dollars at the very most before he killed himself
As opposed to municipal bond rigging (defrauding cities) for sums in excess of $670 million resulting in bankers getting 3 years in prison and about and average of $80,000 in fines.
U.S. v. Carollo, 10-cr-00654, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York
This question is for real people not astroturfers who need not reply.
So if I wanted to spam a google form by filling the survey 100 times by refreshing each time, would it work?
Be passionate about your answers