Before there was Aaron Swartz, there was David LaMacchia.
Swartz’s suicide while awaiting trial for using MIT’s system to improperly download academic articles has prompted a widespread debate about whether prosecutors were overzealous in filing charges that carried up to 35 years in prison. Prosecutors were trying to force Swartz to plead guilty and admit he was a felon in exchange for six months in prison. They vowed to seek a 7-year term if Swartz went to trial and lost.
Comments
Kevin, I'm really grateful to you for keeping this story alive. I am outraged by this case and by the Boston US Attorney's Office. I really want them to admit they f---ed up. Since that is unlikely I want the citizenry to realize how despicable their actions were in this case (and maybe in many other cases we don't know about). The prosecutors' ethical duty is to seek justice and most prosecutors, state and federal, completely ignore (or don't know about) that mandate. And good for Judge Stearns!
And an additional "like" for your moniker.
this is nothing new with the federal government either in the judicial branch or bureaucracy. This doesn't sound radically different than what the IRS has been known to do as part of its organizational behavior. As sad as the death of this young man is, if this were another person dealing with either federal revenue or a father with child custody issues in most states, there would not be this hue and cry in the Boston Globe. The real issues are the attitude of the governmental agencies generally not just in this one case. Ask the IRS, for example, if they apologize when they wrongly accuse someone of something then use the same strong arm tactics ? This happened to someone I know. After months of IRS posturing when they were finally shown to have been wrong, they just slunk away with not a word. You know who doesn't do that ? MA DOR. They actually said they were sorry they had made a mistake. The real question being raised here is the broad one of the behavior of government toward its citizens.
I just don't understand the outrage. Prosecuters prosecute. If Swartz had not killed himself, there would have been time for a "Solomonic" judge, and his own defense attorneys to mitigate the charges. I am sure that Swartz had the financial resources and influence at his command to wage a campaign to rally public opinion in his favor.
The tragedy here is not what the prosecuters did to Swartz, but what Swartz did to his parents, his family and his friends by hanging himself. Especially his parents. I cannot imagine a greater sorrow than having to spend the rest of your life contemplating the loss of your child. And Asron Swartz brought that fate down on his parents by his own hand.
Your point is made yet I don't think you grasp the enormity of being a twentysomething computer geek under the weight of the full force of the federal government for a year. Few can withstand it unless they truly are sociopathic criminals.
Depressed people who committ suicide are feeling emotional pain as excruiating as being disembowled or boiled in oil. They just want the pain to stop. Aaron Swartz did not take his own life to hurt his family. He did it to relieve his own suffering.
OK, so let's hack and distribute Tax Cut and Turbo Tax software, which contains tax documents that we have paid to formulate. No harm, right?
PV, am I ever glad you do not like guns, I would be afraid to stand behind you for fear of getting shot.
Ummm, you do realize that what he hacked had nothing to do with anyone's personal data? But rather research that taxpayers paid for?
Borderjumper presented the crux of the problem when he stated "The real question being raised here is the broad one of the behavior of government toward its citizens" and the fact of the matter is when the government itself is exposed, no matter which branch, heavy hands will follow. We are out numbered by those who have abandoned the principles behind justice and are being served by the self-serving which means no honest service. When the hearings take place in DC the following needs to happen:
The Office of General Counsel from the Administrative Offices of the US Courts needs to be confronted at these hearings because the stone covering the PACER incident and the huge embarrassment to the FBI when they harassed Aaron over the PACER download in which absolutely no law was broken sure makes the current situation look like a "We got him this time" scenario chased by some heavy handed retaliation.
The question was US Attorney Ortiz pressured by the US Courts to pursue Aaron? Further, US Attorney Ortiz needs to be asked why she felt she should be so hard handed on Aaron when her office chose to ignore computer fraud by court staff which was supported by material evidence submitted to her office such as court dockets and filings as well as affidavits? US Attorney Ortiz needs to be asked why the FBI and her office ignored the fact that the USDC of Massachusetts and First Circuit carry fraud on computers provided to them by the tax payer with the intent to obstruct justice when her office was informed that these acts were not only carried by clerk staff but, also, carried by a Magistrate Judge and an Assistant Circuit Executive with the Title LEGAL AFFAIRS who felt she could render fraudulent documents with an inactive law license and post those documents on a government web site.
NO ONE IS ABOVE THE LAW yet Aaron with his open records campaign, connections after working to defeat SOPA and general capabilities that could lead to full expose of the corruption in the US Courts was the one being persecuted! Hopefully MIT will answer why they chose to bow to a corrupt federal government over standing by Aaron!!!
http://www.scribd.com/tired_of_corruption https://public.resource.org/aaron/army/