Post #369,642
1/12/13 9:30:38 AM
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Aaron Swartz has died at 26.
http://tech.mit.edu/V132/N61/swartz.html
Aaron Swartz commits suicide
By Anne Cai
NEWS EDITOR; UPDATED AT 2:15 A.M. 1/12/13
Computer activist Aaron H. Swartz committed suicide in New York City yesterday, Jan. 11, according to his uncle, Michael Wolf, in a comment to The Tech. Swartz was 26.
ÂThe tragic and heartbreaking information you received is, regrettably, true, confirmed Swartz attorney, Elliot R. Peters of Kecker and Van Nest, in an email to The Tech.
Swartz was indicted in July 2011 by a federal grand jury for allegedly mass downloading documents from the JSTOR online journal archive with the intent to distribute them. He subsequently moved to Brooklyn, New York, where he then worked for Avaaz Foundation, a nonprofit Âglobal web movement to bring people-powered politics to decision-making everywhere. Swartz appeared in court on Sept. 24, 2012 and pleaded not guilty.
The accomplished Swartz co-authored the now widely-used RSS 1.0 specification at age 14, was one of the three co-owners of the popular social news site Reddit, and completed a fellowship at HarvardÂs Ethics Center Lab on Institutional Corruption. In 2010, he founded DemandProgress.org, a Âcampaign against the Internet censorship bills SOPA/PIPA.Â
:-(
Cheers,
Scott.
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Post #369,648
1/12/13 11:30:21 AM
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Fallows has more on why he was important.
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Post #369,652
1/12/13 1:50:14 PM
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Lessig: Prosecutor as bully
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Post #369,653
1/12/13 2:07:00 PM
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afaict justice is pretty much dead these latter days.
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Post #369,659
1/12/13 3:45:22 PM
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He was not only an internet pioneer...
...he was a co-worker.
My company (ThoughtWorks) has been behind him and supporting him every step of the way through his journey. Sad that it has come to such a tragic end.
-Mike
@MikeVitale42
"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."
- Benjamin Franklin, 1759 Historical Review of Pennsylvania
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Post #369,732
1/14/13 10:11:31 AM
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Re: Aaron Swartz has died at 26.
-Mike
@MikeVitale42
"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."
- Benjamin Franklin, 1759 Historical Review of Pennsylvania
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Post #369,759
1/14/13 5:08:07 PM
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Re: Aaron Swartz has died at 26.
Here is what he really did http://unhandled.com...on-swartzs-crime/ , according to the forensic analyst who was to be his expert witness in his trial:
Aaron did not Âhack the JSTOR website for all reasonable definitions of ÂhackÂ. Aaron wrote a handful of basic python scripts that first discovered the URLs of journal articles and then used curl to request them. Aaron did not use parameter tampering, break a CAPTCHA, or do anything more complicated than call a basic command line tool that downloads a file in the same manner as right-clicking and choosing ÂSave As from your favorite browser.
Aaron did nothing to cover his tracks or hide his activity, as evidenced by his very verbose .bash_history, his uncleared browser history and lack of any encryption of the laptop he used to download these files. Changing oneÂs MAC address (which the government inaccurately identified as equivalent to a carÂs VIN number) or putting a mailinator email address into a captured portal are not crimes. If they were, you could arrest half of the people who have ever used airport wifi.
http://crooksandliar...rimes-uncommitted
Satan (impatiently) to Newcomer: The trouble with you Chicago people is, that you think you are the best people down here; whereas you are merely the most numerous.
- - - Mark Twain ÂPuddÂnhead WilsonÂs New Calendar, 1897
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Post #369,811
1/15/13 3:12:09 AM
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Re: Aaron Swartz has died at 26.
His (Boing Boing) ~22 min video-report on the 'IMPOSSIBLE!" dismantling of the SOAP atrocity, here:
http://boingboing.ne...aaron-swartz.html
demonstrates [almost 'live'] enough about the speaker, his POV and manifest communication skills--even on a first acquaintance
--to gauge what a fine mind we all have lost.
The other encomia underscore how multiple were his talents, while it is clear that DoJ still hires modern-day Javerts: to "drop the atom bomb on Luxembourg".
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Javert
Throw in Lessig's characterization of a livid Senator, salivating at the prospect of ~~ nailing those web-brats who make fun of the incompetence and impotence of Himself and cohorts:
Maybe the best that the still-living can build from this loss and (merely latest example of) the National incompetence and incoherence:
is that vigilance next shall be even larger than that which killed that bill, because we Know that Reactionary forces have never been larger or more determined.
If he needs to be made a Martyr? Fair enough, if that icon will keep people Off Their Asses when Congress tries to reword and pass: Version Two.
Meanwhile ... may that Prosecutor become as universally despised as is His Javert 'icon' already, for every good reason.
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Post #369,812
1/15/13 7:08:28 AM
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A call to remove Javert from him position
https://petitions.wh...n-swartz/RQNrG1Ck
Also, this is apparently not this particular Javert's first foray into causing young hackers to commit suicide: http://www.buzzfeed....nked-to-another-h
-Mike
@MikeVitale42
"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."
- Benjamin Franklin, 1759 Historical Review of Pennsylvania
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Post #370,658
1/31/13 5:24:50 AM
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Issa probes attorney general over Aaron Swartz
http://www.salon.com...emium%29_7_30_110
Salon's brief take; haven't looked at more credible sources yet..
But if not a single Financial-Head has yet rolled [and it hasn't] what are the odds on a Real Investigation here? in the World Capital of Corruption (on whatever level one looks.)
Interesting gossip, if Anonymous is to be believed ... all the way to USSC [formerly 'Supreme Court', but disaffectionately, the Un-electable Shrub Selection Committee.]
[. . .]
Issa told HuffPo that the Justice Department has promised to brief him and Cummings on the Swartz case. ÂI expect that weÂll be meeting with them next week, he said. ÂWe expect to have a candid and open discussion with the U.S. AttorneyÂs Office and then weÂll take it from there, but I promise you we will not leave one stone unturned.Â
Meanwhile, California Democrat Rep. Zoe LofgrenÂs proposal to amend the dangerously broad Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (under which Swartz was prosecuted) is reportedly facing push-back from the Justice Department. To aid in efforts to reform the legislation, Anonymous recently hacked the U.S. Sentencing CommissionÂs website and has threatened to release as of yet unknown information, believed to relate to Supreme Court justices, if changes to cybercrime laws are not made.
WTF; since the POLs Know no Shame in all their machinations, what could be more apropos to our now fully-budded Banana Republic, than..
Baldfaced Mafia-style extortion via publishing? -VS- withholding? of purported even nastier stuff than usual?
That crumbling sound ... You Hear? it's Deafening here.
..sorta like pillars and colonnades in those 'gleaming alabaster Cities-on-Hills: the sound of a million fatigue-cracks happening?
Law above fear, justice above law, mercy above justice, love above all.
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Post #370,723
2/1/13 8:39:50 AM
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Issa doesn't care about Aaron Swartz
All he cares about is using this situation to embarrass President Obama however possible.
Satan (impatiently) to Newcomer: The trouble with you Chicago people is, that you think you are the best people down here; whereas you are merely the most numerous.
- - - Mark Twain ÂPuddÂnhead WilsonÂs New Calendar, 1897
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Post #371,017
2/7/13 2:29:43 PM
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Another who ended his life in a too-vigorous investigation.
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Post #371,884
2/26/13 11:39:28 PM
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DOJ admits that his prosecution was a political act
-Mike
@MikeVitale42
"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."
- Benjamin Franklin, 1759 Historical Review of Pennsylvania
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Post #371,890
2/27/13 9:19:52 AM
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Really? B&C? Nice Choice of Venue for a reply
That basically says "Nuh-uh"...
What effing ever. The CFAA needs to be decimated or at least changed to something that is much more specific than could be imagined in 1984 and then expanded very widely in 1996.
I mean, we are talking *CENTURIES* in Internet/Computer Industry time.
--
greg@gregfolkert.net
PGP key 1024D/B524687C 2003-08-05
Fingerprint: E1D3 E3D7 5850 957E FED0 2B3A ED66 6971 B524 687C
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