WASHINGTON — The suicide of Internet activist Aaron Swartz is reverberating throughout Congress this week, with family members arriving on Capitol Hill to urge passage of legislation that would soften some Internet laws, and a House committee investigating whether prosecution of Swartz went too far.
Criticism of Swartz’s prosecution has led the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform to open an inquiry about the case. The panel is seeking answers from the Department of Justice regarding the severity of Swartz’s proposed punishment, and whether his activism affected his prosecution. Justice officials could provide a private briefing for committee members as soon as next week, House aides said.
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"the best and brightest in America will be afraid to innovate for fear of prosecutors"
Excuse me? None of this stopped Aaron Schwartz from working on RSS at all, so like most things its all hyperbole.
He was a fellow at an ETHICS institute yet determined that he was within his rights to download and disseminate material that originally comes from a pay service. Not sure how that jibes since the content was only accessible from places that pay for access, you may not agree with the business model but there it is. The prosecution may be an overreach but as the saying goes "if you can't do the time, don't do the crime"
He violated the terms of service of a web service provider. Did you know that can be a federal crime?
He did not "steal" anything to which he did not have a legal right. Had he sat at a computer and downloaded these texts one-by-one, he'd not have been prosecuted. He was being prosecuted because he found a way to download them by the thousands.
This activity might have been questionable, but he was doing it to bring attention to a number of issues, including the fact that "pay" servces are preventing access to things that are out of copyright, or for information that your tax dollars have already paid for.
This is a complicated, nuanced set of issues. "Stealing is wrong" is huge over-simplification. What about the pay service that charges for what should be available for free? Arent't they stealing?
If this congressional committee is serious, based on my direct knowledge, the abuse of power operating out of the US attorney's office is mind-boggling.
Several rogue prosecutors and the Boston FBI office bent over backwards to cover up "truly incredible," public corruption and verified crime at the Defense Contract Management Agency, subsidized by hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars.
Some of the verified crime outlined in my 30-page affidavit (verified by the US attorney's office and the FBI) included retaliatory frame ups, promotion fixing, fraudulent promotional certificates, sexual harassment, rigged investigations, prosecutorial misconduct, heinous and violent acts against women, well planned discrimination and other violations.
With the complicity of the US attorney's office, the perpetrators were well rewarded with quid pro quo promotions, jobs, bonuses and awards.
As to my opposition in the retaliatory frame up of an elderly, sickly Hispanic female (and other violations), the chief counsel, Bruce Krasker's response was, "We (the Legal Directorate) can do anything we want. It's called gaming. We can deny, we can delay ...dismiss. We can manipulate the system any way we want."
Despite 18 USC 4, which makes it mandatory to report official corruption and government crime to a judge, and FBI Director Mueller's high priority on public corruption, on two separate occasions in 2010, the US Marshals Service visited me at my place of employment at the Massachusetts trial court and told me to stop reporting verified official corruption and verified high crime in government to the US Attorney, her subordinate public corruption officer, Brian Kelly and to members of the federal bench or else.
On June 16, 2011 I learned that someone at the US attorney's office placed me on a government "watch list."
That the US attorney's office can force anyone to be complicit with egregious criminal activity is just plain wrong.
The statute of limitations has not yet expired on the above conduct and my offer to the FBI and the DOJ to be an expert government witness still stands.
dougkinan@yahoo.com
Sworn and Commissioned Officer of the Massachusetts Trial Court (Retired)