Reddit co-founder and Internet activist Aaron Swartz commits suicide at 26

reply to post by riddle6


No, he didn't. He used it legally, then had a script to scrape it for content.
MIT noticed the bandwidth use and shut him down.

Here's where he got in trouble: He took his laptop to a wiring closet and plugged right in directly bypassing the throttle and kept on downloading.

He didn't publish it, he gave it back. It was our wonderful dept. of injustice that went after him like a salivating Cujo. (Prosecutor said "stealing is stealing" Yeah, I guess unless you are HSBC!)

Anyway, his argument with JSTOR was that they were supposed to be for the betterment of humankind and that most of the documents were IN the public domain, just without an easy way to access together, since most academics publish their papers on their own websites as well. AND since most of the studies were PUBLIC FUNDED anyway.

What you have to get about hackers- and I should maybe use the term builders- and maybe also about a lot of activists I have met- and maybe add in conspiracy theorists to that, I have seen it in this community- is that they are all driven partly by autodidactism. You really can't be IN some of these fields without it because YOU are laying the groundwork, doing the research.

And I think that it clues on in to what the world could be if more information was free. Look what the Internet has done- look at the farming techniques producing tons of food on just a little bit of land with a sustainable greenhouse system, for example. 2Liter bottles providing skylights?

Look at what we can DO if we can JUST get the information we need. This is why a lot of 'hackers' that are first and foremost BUILDERS of this new information system we call the Internet - want to liberate information.

We've got to get data liberated, and information liberated. Humanity can do wonderful things and solve so many problems, the poor can solve a lot of their OWN problems.

back to the movie Sneakers:



It's really a power to the people thing.

Also, there's an earlier thread here: www.abovetopsecret.com...

Originally posted by CosmicEgg
Schwartz was right to steal those docs, in my opinion. It's just sick the way we hold back our own development as a species by withholding information until we can maximize our financial gain from it.

I agree that information should be more readily available, but in this case, it's not about holding back anything. Those are published scientific papers; and JSTOR is available free of charge in many public libraries across the world.
It's about intellectual property. Nobody would expect films or music to be available free of charge.
Just like films or music, you can buy those articles; or you can read them free of charge in a public library.

The man was depressed; he committed suicide.
He is not the first one or the last one to do so.
May he rest in peace.

reply to post by CosmicEgg


There are piles of papers in vaults that will never reach the internet.
The documents may be so important as to re write history as we know it
or as we are told it without end by school books, TV History Channels and the net.

Even with published documents made available on the net from years ago the
researchers are either stumped or have more to lose by understanding the
content and ramifications.

Not a happy situation but knowing what is wrong helps to counter the frauds
that will take as much time as the frauds are continued.

reply to post by TeslaandLyne


Don't I know it, but it will take this sort of "criminal" behavior to finally free us from this unbearably stupid idea that knowledge is personal power. Grr...

Power to the criminals!!! Hackers forever!!!! and more exclamation points for even more emphasis too.

It seems I am wrong and this thread was first.

I just hope they can be merged as the other one is longer and has a lot of good info in it.
Maybe a mod can look at it?

reply to post by Vanitas


There are places where libraries do not have such access, or you have to drive there, or get someone TO drive you, or, like, in mine, you have to wait at least an hour to get a computer then it sucks because they are uncomfortable, slow.

But they are free anyway, and he didn't post them, so why 30+ years in jail and a fine of a million bucks?
You don't think that's overkill?

What about Hollywood releasing it's own movies? The suing people that download them? That was in the news lately.

Fact is DMCA sucks. It needs to be changed. Patent laws keep creeping up too.

They use intellectual property laws- that suck- to keep us all in check. They tried to justify SOPA with it.

double post. Sorry.

reply to post by hadriana


OK thanks. I was just really confused because all of that information is public and found on the internet with a little digging.


I went to JSTOR's website and this message popped up:

We are deeply saddened to hear the news about Aaron Swartz. We extend our heartfelt condolences to Aaron’s family, friends, and everyone who loved, knew, and admired him. He was a truly gifted person who made important contributions to the development of the internet and the web from which we all benefit.

We have had inquiries about JSTOR’s view of this sad event given the charges against Aaron and the trial scheduled for April. The case is one that we ourselves had regretted being drawn into from the outset, since JSTOR’s mission is to foster widespread access to the world’s body of scholarly knowledge. At the same time, as one of the largest archives of scholarly literature in the world, we must be careful stewards of the information entrusted to us by the owners and creators of that content. To that end, Aaron returned the data he had in his possession and JSTOR settled any civil claims we might have had against him in June 2011.

JSTOR is a not-for-profit service and a member of the internet community. We will continue to work to distribute the content under our care as widely as possible while balancing the interests of researchers, students, libraries, and publishers as we pursue our commitment to the long-term preservation of this important scholarly literature.

We join those who are mourning this tragic loss.

Here's the link to the page where this is located, but I have to log in with my school ID and password, so I don't know if anyone that doesn't have a log-in will be able to see it.

reply to post by riddle6


It's posted on the front page of the public JSTOR, without any login sequence required.

about.jstor.org/statement-swartz

reply to post by wujotvowujotvowujotvo


Well, I just tried to access 2 articles and hit a brick wall. This is on their new 'register and read' program.

All I could really get to were stuff from like 1830 - old journals already out of copyright. If the aim of the researchers, journalists, ect., was to increase knowledge, and it was publicly funded, so available at colleges and universities, why NOT put it online? We're not talking about stuff that involves national security,,,

Why not? So someone can make money off of it. Not the academics. They don't get jack either way. The universities and such. Those things a lot of people can't afford.

If people WANT to spend their time researching just because they want to learn, why not LET them?

Just someone sees a chance to make a buck off someone else's hard work. That's all.

reply to post by Vanitas


Don't get me started on film, etc. Just don't.

Greed is inexcusable. It simply should not be tolerated. It must not be condoned. We should be more emotionally and intellectually evolved by now. Of all, that is the least excusable of all.

You know though, I used to work in IT at a university, and MS was too expensive for us, so we migrated EVERYTHING to open source so we didn't have to pay MS's huge license fees. Of course the desktops for students were gifted, so that was all MS.

We used SO MUCH opensource. Universities benefit from the work of people that are often NOT affiliated with them, but when it comes to giving back access to research, they lock it down? And again, we're not talking about national security type stuff. Most of the stuff is so boring not many would read it anyway.

The universities set up presses to publish the journals and make a profit. But all they really do is compile it, because it's all donated to them.

SO in some ways the universities are locking down access to information.

When I worked there, I really was not all that impressed with academia. There was a definite entitlement sort of attitude- IE you weren't even worthy of listening to unless you had a PhD. It was not really so much actual teachers or professors - but administration. And it always surprised me how much money some of those folks made- millions in salary. And yet it was a public university. And all I ever saw them do was politics and rub elbows with the rich. It's really quite close to a class system that's developed in American academia, IMO.

It was quite stressful to me. I'm a fairly intelligent, fairly educated person. Yet before I went into 'meetings' with the top strata, I - and others- would be given instructions in 'manners'. It was sort of like being taught how to bow to the king, how to act in the queen's presence. Not because they were 'my boss' because 'my boss was technically the university system itself, but because THEY considered THEMSELVES my superiors. BLEH

I think Aaron Schwartz saw some danger and injustice and hypocrisy in the way they were hoarding knowledge that was given to them.

It's really had me thinking today. I hope some good will come out of his passion.

Originally posted by CosmicEgg
reply to post by TeslaandLyne

 

Don't I know it, but it will take this sort of "criminal" behavior to finally free us from this unbearably stupid idea that knowledge is personal power. Grr...

Power to the criminals!!! Hackers forever!!!! and more exclamation points for even more emphasis too.

There is an interesting story and movie the 'Hoax' which is a continuation of a book that
was burned as the autobiography of Howard Hughes. Making contact with Hughes ex
employees an intended manuscript was copied and used in the book.

Hughes needed a TWA investigation to go away and was thought to divulge Nixon contributions
if the book was not rescinded. Some thought Nixon wanted the Democrat head quarters
searched for the book and if the book had any money contributions revealed.

Well Nixon got caught trying too hard and Hughes' TWA was cleared of charges.
The book was exposed as a fraud and all copies burnt, well according to the bonfire
shown in the movie. Nixon was kicked out of office and Hughes died not too soon
afterwards after a long recluse of not having been seen but made a telephone contact to the
book investors and publisher that was top news at the time.

Strange things happen and as you say who knows how the criminals will expose more
criminals. I for one waits in anticipation for the next move. Following Tesla's work and
author Lyne might be a bit dry but something is going on and it might be big at some time.

reply to post by hadriana


The walling off of the ordinary citizen by the million dollar salaried holders and administrators
made me think of similar situations which may have been recounted in
search.yahoo.com...
the Lyne publications such as that one.

If you ever heard of atomic bomb plans being exposed that might be included.
The bomb plans had already been passed around the globe for deals we know nothing
about before the Los Alamos library restrictions were lowered by Pres. Carter.
That incident did bring the walls up again.

ED: I wonder if a freedom of information site would help, I should would like to find
all those government proposals Tesla sent off to the US Navy or Woodrow Wilson.
Those have to be vaulted away.