Aaronsw indicted for hacking MIT network to download millions of JSTOR docs • Hacker News Board

Re: Aaronsw indicted for hacking MIT network to download millions of JSTOR docs

#11

Post by oasisbob » Tue, Jul 19, 2011, 5:06 PM UTC

ramidarigaz wrote: post #6

Why would he do this? What is the purpose of having all those documents?

This is from his personal site, http://www.aaronsw.com:

He is the author of numerous articles on a variety of topics, especially the corrupting influence of big money on institutions including nonprofits, the media, politics, and public opinion. In conjunction with Shireen Barday, he downloaded and analyzed 441,170 law review articles to determine the source of their funding; the results were published in the Stanford Law Review. From 2010-11, he researched these topics as a Fellow at the Harvard Ethics Center Lab on Institutional Corruption.

He has also assisted many other researchers in collecting and analyzing large data sets with theinfo.org. His landmark analysis of Wikipedia, Who Writes Wikipedia?, has been widely cited.

Re: Aaronsw indicted for hacking MIT network to download millions of JSTOR docs

#12

Post by rryan » Tue, Jul 19, 2011, 5:07 PM UTC

"Aaron Swartz ... was a fellow at Harvard University’s Center for Ethics"

Re: Aaronsw indicted for hacking MIT network to download millions of JSTOR docs

#13

Post by luigi » Tue, Jul 19, 2011, 5:07 PM UTC

ramidarigaz wrote: post #6

Why would he do this? What is the purpose of having all those documents?

He liberated millions of documents from the PACER legal archive a while back:

http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2009/10/swartz-fbi/

Re: Aaronsw indicted for hacking MIT network to download millions of JSTOR docs

#14

Post by jpeterson » Tue, Jul 19, 2011, 5:07 PM UTC

Alternate link, in case these are taken down: http://pastebin.com/9vjfkigY

Re: Aaronsw indicted for hacking MIT network to download millions of JSTOR docs

#15

Post by rryan » Tue, Jul 19, 2011, 5:09 PM UTC

sp332 wrote: post #5

How did Aaron get access to the for-pay articles (page 9)? Also: nice going, Aaron! Drag research access into the 21st century, kicking and screaming! Does anyone think it's odd that an Acer laptop could write these files to disk faster than JSTOR could serve them?

Anyone on MITNet has access to JSTOR articles free of charge to the user. Similarly the ACM, IEEE, etc. all have agreements like this with major universities.

Re: Aaronsw indicted for hacking MIT network to download millions of JSTOR docs

#16

Post by troutwine » Tue, Jul 19, 2011, 5:09 PM UTC

The indictment asserts that Mr. Swartz intended to distribute the files downloaded but did not substantiate this claim. I wonder what proof they have of this? (There are, of course, a great many laws dealing with probable intent that need only convince a jury of said intent without demonstrating it's validity.)

Re: Aaronsw indicted for hacking MIT network to download millions of JSTOR docs

#17

Post by cing » Tue, Jul 19, 2011, 5:10 PM UTC

ramidarigaz wrote: post #6

Why would he do this? What is the purpose of having all those documents?

33. Swartz intended to distribute a significant portion of JSTOR’s archive of digitized journal articles through one or more file-sharing sites.

Re: Aaronsw indicted for hacking MIT network to download millions of JSTOR docs

#18

Post by asciilifeform » Tue, Jul 19, 2011, 5:10 PM UTC

The man is a heroic martyr, who risked everything to set knowledge free. (Knowledge most of which was produced at the public's expense!)

He may very well die in prison.

Or perhaps he will be forced to publicly recant and merely be forbidden from using computers. I hope that in the latter case he will have the good sense to emigrate.

One day, his tormentors will be harshly punished. Unless, of course, "the future is a boot stamping on a human face — forever."

"Keeping medicines from the bloodstreams of the sick; food from the bellies of the hungry; books from the hands of the uneducated; technology from the underdeveloped; and putting advocates of freedom in prisons. Intellectual property is to the 21st century what the slave trade was to the 16th."

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Lulu_of_the_Lotus-Eaters)

Re: Aaronsw indicted for hacking MIT network to download millions of JSTOR docs

#19

Post by jdvolz » Tue, Jul 19, 2011, 5:11 PM UTC

sp332 wrote: post #5

How did Aaron get access to the for-pay articles (page 9)? Also: nice going, Aaron! Drag research access into the 21st century, kicking and screaming! Does anyone think it's odd that an Acer laptop could write these files to disk faster than JSTOR could serve them?

Yeah, I was laughing about how an Acer laptop took down their service and did damage to their network. If I was JSTOR, I wouldn't prosecute just because it makes our company look ridiculous.

Re: Aaronsw indicted for hacking MIT network to download millions of JSTOR docs

#20

Post by SpikeGronim » Tue, Jul 19, 2011, 5:11 PM UTC

sp332 wrote: post #5

How did Aaron get access to the for-pay articles (page 9)? Also: nice going, Aaron! Drag research access into the 21st century, kicking and screaming! Does anyone think it's odd that an Acer laptop could write these files to disk faster than JSTOR could serve them?

"Does anyone think it's odd that an Acer laptop could write these files to disk faster than JSTOR could serve them?"

Nope. I bet the JSTOR servers are serving many concurrent requests. If he had the servers to himself then yes, that would be surprising.