The president of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology announced Sunday that the university will launch a “thorough analysis” of MIT’s involvement in the federal hacking case against computer prodigy Aaron Swartz, who committed suicide Friday.
Swartz’s trial for mass-downloading subscription-based documents from an archive system on MIT’s network was scheduled to begin in April. He faced up to 35 years in prison and a $1 million fine.
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Way to go Ortiz - you really took a dangerous criminal off the streets this time (35 years? Really! Come on!)
Our Federal Gov't is F.U.B.A.R.
A thief is a thief. Its a shame he killed himself, but he stole others property. Dispite the libs efforts (so far, anyway)... we are still a nation governed by the rule of law.
He stole nothing. He had full rights to have access to the information he downloaded. The only violation he made was violating JSTOR's terms of service. What happened until innocent until proven guilty?
@thecpt : Yeah. Right.
It is a characteristic of human nature to spend a lot of time attending to the easy, while the more difficult, and more important, languishes.
The U.S. Attorney's Office in Boston has a long history of turning minor matters into federal cases, of "straining out the gnat, while swallowing the camel". Can one ever forget the schools of minnows who workedin in the Inspectional Services Department of the City of Boston who were indicted (with much bravado) during Bill Weld's tenure as U.S. Attorney, while all the big fish got away?
In its over zealous prosecution of this synthetic crime allegedly committed by a 26 year-old man who killed or wounded no one, Carmen Ortiz and the AUSA's assigned to this case have placed themselves and the office squaraely within this ignoble tradition.
This kid gets intimidated by the federal government and the CEO's of the banks that nearly killed the USA's economy got raises!!!! No federal agency trying to " get" the banks- inside traders- people who mismanage average Joe's portfolios but by all means go after this kid. Typical .....( ya Bernie Madorf ...)
Well said, nut752! Bravo!
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As a scientist, I can tell you that the whole scientific journal system is a total ripoff, especially since everything is now digital. When research papers were printed on paper, this huge industry sprang up to publish the journals (including the peer review process) and then sell the journals back to academic institutions for their libraries. The reason this was a boondoggle is that the federal government supported the research by NIH/NSF individual grants, as well as facilities grants and other support for universities. Then the researchers had to pay page charges based on the number of pages and figures in each paper, which also comes out of grant money. Then the libraries have to pay for subscriptions to the journals, which is probably supported by state tax money for public schools. This research should be public from the start bacause we have paid for it multiple times with our tax dollars. These days papers are submitted and published digitally and most institutions have digital subscriptions. The only reason these companies are necessary is managing the peer review process, so it is time to revise the model.
Horrible waste of a great man. How I wish we had all been as vocal in our support of Aaron Swartz in the first place as we are now that it is too late.
He was a hacker and now he is a dead hacker.....end of story. Move on people, nothing to see here!
rhs777-- does RHS stand for reprehensible human snake? This man was a hero. He was a computer genius who used his power for good-- not to steal identies, not to steal video games, movies, and music--but to make information that everyone has a right to have freely available to everyone. First, he went after the records of your-- yes your-- taxpayer funded courts that your government has failed to provide for free. Then he went after fair-use journal articles that were out of copyright.
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I would like more details on the legalities involved. I don't believe a reader can form an opinion who was right or wrong in this case. If Aaron was right legally, then I agree the prosecutor should be removed. If Aaron did break the law it is a different story. I also think, unless I missing the impact of his acts, that the penalties involved seem excessive.
It was reported that Aaron Swartz downloaded from JSTOR. This is a scientific data base open for access by students by using their university library card.
It is complicated and unclear why the federal government dumped multiple charges upon this young man. It is very possible that this situation is gross government poor judgement and overreach.
Personally, the government ought to be searching and prosecuting the ciber identy theft hackers.