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

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

#291

Post by ars »

kragen wrote: post #290
ars wrote: post #280

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's sad that you have to write javascript code to do that! (But also cool that you did. :) "Complete Current Scholarship Collection" for 22751.90 is a duplicate of all the things above it. So I think some of the entries have been double counted. The real price for most libraries may about 1/2 or less of your estimate (they won't be interested in everything). And 20,000 to 40,000 is (well, shouldn't) be a lot of mone…

Oh, thanks for finding that error! I think you're thinking very much of US salaries. $40,000 a year shouldn't be a lot of money for a public library in the US , because it's the salary for a single employee (or the total costs for half an employee!), and the wonderful public library system in the US does indeed have multiple libraries. But world GDP per person is about US$10k per year, compared to the US's US$47k — a…

I don't know this for sure, but I suspect that if you contacted JSTOR from a low income country they may give a better deal.

BTW, if you really do need JSTOR, it's not hard to find a library card number from a US library and use that for access anywhere. (Well, I don't know JSTOR specifically, but all the other databases I've used from my library are available to me at home after I put in my library card number.)

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

#292

Post by bugsy »

luigi wrote: post #13
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/

All of which were public domain court documents, it should be noted.

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

#293

Post by gluejar »

mbreese wrote: post #110

JSTOR's statement http://about.jstor.org/news-events/news/jstor-statement-misu... JSTOR Statement: Misuse Incident and Criminal Case The United States Department of Justice announced today the criminal indictment of an individual, Aaron Swartz, on charges related to computer fraud and abuse stemming from his misuse of the JSTOR database. We have been subpoenaed by the United States Attorney’s Office in this case and…

Will this be sufficient to ward off a hackstorm against JSTOR?

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

#294

Post by jillsy »

jfager wrote: post #267
jillsy wrote: post #227

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Here's what's supposed to happen: A student on campus wants to do a research project analyzing a large number of journal articles, or even just the metadata around a large number of journal articles. They approach their librarian, the librarian approaches the journal vendor (JSTOR or someone else), and everyone works together to find a way to get the student their data. Maybe the vendor hands over a special dataset.…

It's outright sociopathic to suggest that justice for a few weeks inconvenience is 35 years in prison and a million dollar fine.

It's excessive, and I don't think that's what he'll serve. But he was warned multiple times that MIT and JSTOR didn't want him doing what he was doing, and he continued doing it, so as far as I can tell he's getting exactly what he asked for. He probably thinks he's the Rosa Parks of scholarly communication. I think he's reckless and grandiose.

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

#295

Post by kragen »

ars wrote: post #291
kragen wrote: post #290

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh, thanks for finding that error! I think you're thinking very much of US salaries. $40,000 a year shouldn't be a lot of money for a public library in the US , because it's the salary for a single employee (or the total costs for half an employee!), and the wonderful public library system in the US does indeed have multiple libraries. But world GDP per person is about US$10k per year, compared to the US's US$47k — a…

I don't know this for sure, but I suspect that if you contacted JSTOR from a low income country they may give a better deal. BTW, if you really do need JSTOR, it's not hard to find a library card number from a US library and use that for access anywhere. (Well, I don't know JSTOR specifically, but all the other databases I've used from my library are available to me at home after I put in my library card number.)

Their price schedule divides "Public Library – Small" into "US", "Canada", and "Rest of the World". It's possible that someone phoning them up from Senegal or Paraguay would be able to negotiate a lower price, but it's not as if their existing price list doesn't recognize the existence of different countries. (Still, lumping Switzerland and Malawi into the same category might not represent a deep level of consideration of the issues.)

For what it's worth, I was using their web site from my house here in Argentina, which is usually classified as a "middle-income country," but where you can hire a full-time employee illegally for US$4000 per year.

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

#296

Post by ars »

kragen wrote: post #295
ars wrote: post #291

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know this for sure, but I suspect that if you contacted JSTOR from a low income country they may give a better deal. BTW, if you really do need JSTOR, it's not hard to find a library card number from a US library and use that for access anywhere. (Well, I don't know JSTOR specifically, but all the other databases I've used from my library are available to me at home after I put in my library card number.)

Their price schedule divides "Public Library – Small" into "US", "Canada", and "Rest of the World". It's possible that someone phoning them up from Senegal or Paraguay would be able to negotiate a lower price, but it's not as if their existing price list doesn't recognize the existence of different countries. (Still, lumping Switzerland and Malawi into the same category might not represent a deep level of considerati…

The prices are the same for all the versions (size or location), so I don't know why they ask.

The only thing that seems to change the price is the organization type.

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

#297

Post by keane »

GHFigs wrote: post #220
keane wrote: post #151

I don't understand why the US Attorney is suggesting he be charged with such ridiculously inflated charges. Reviewing the Indictment report, "JSTOR did not permit users... to download all of the articles from any particular issue of a journal." Further, "JSTOR notified its users of these rules, and users accepted these rules when they chose to obtain and use JSTOR’s content." So basically JSTOR is claiming Aaron viol…

Frankly, I think most of the claims in your post are bonkers, but this one sticks out: This inconveniencing of other users could have been avoided and the blame for how JSTOR allocates resources lies with the architects of JSTOR. "During November and December, 2010, Swartz used the "ghost laptop" (i.e., the Acer laptop) at MIT to make over two million downloads from JSTOR. This is more than one hundred times the numb…

Basing whether or not Aaron's actions were "wire fraud" based on quantity doesn't really make sense. Saying he downloaded more than other users at MIT is really just saying other people requested less files than he did. I remember when I needed academic papers, I stopped using my institution's access to JSTOR because frequently the same paper could be found (legally) using Google Scholar or similar. As academia switches to things like arXiv, JSTOR will be used less and less. I understand that 2 million is orders-greater than an average individual might request, but basing the legality on quantity is flawed. If one file is accessed illegally, you have broken the law. If 2 million are, you have also broken the law.

As to being entirely clear, yes, I would have expected the employees at JSTOR (like the VP of technology making $300k) to have thought of possible ways to rate limit a connection. Just as you can prevent DDOS with something like iptables hashlimit, JSTOR could have done something better than simply refusing all MIT traffic. http://serverfault.com/questions/211135/how-to-prevent-a-loi...

As an analogy, if I host 1 million images of cats on my webserver, and I keep everything open and allow indexes in the Apache configuration, expecting the average person to only download 10 pictures and then you use 'a little WGET magic' to download 1 million jpgs, it seems odd for me to complain when my server crashes and my friend Erica can't download 1 single cat image that she had been wanting to. Yes, your downloads caused the tie up but how angry can I be? Your browser sent a request to my server and my server fulfilled the request.

Like David Segal says, the United States government wants to punish someone for an action akin to allegedly checking out too many books from the library. Over the objections of both MIT and JSTOR, presumably. And you're saying I'm bonkers.

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

#298

Post by kragen »

nolite wrote: post #248
kragen wrote: post #208

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A funny omission is that the indictment never actually says that the wiring cabinet was locked, or how Aaron supposedly broke into it. I infer that it wasn't locked.

locked doors are never a problem for MIT students.. (and apparently even some harvard students)

But, given the rest of the indictment, I'd think that the prosecutor would be sure to throw in "Swartz picked the lock on the restricted wiring closet in order to introduce the Acer computer," since it would incline the grand jury to be more likely to hand down an indictment — unless she knew this was false.

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

#299

Post by flocial »

It's hard to trivialize downloading 4 million articles using a web scraper's bag of tricks and then some. If the information was publicly accessible these charges wouldn't stand unless he tried to distribute it. If it was something so commendable, why would you cloak your activities or go to a different university to do your dirt instead of Harvard (where your a fellow of some sort) or Stanford (where you attended). Regardless of the motives and ideals or the excess of the charges, this isn't one of those hapless grandma versus the RIAA stories. He must have known what he was doing.

The pricing and restrictions on the dissemination of academic papers is by any rational evaluation nothing short of ridiculous and contradicts the academic ideal of free exchange of ideas for the advancement of knowledge. However, history of scholarship is also a history of patronage, academic politics and in-fighting for greater prestige.

It's sad that someone like Aaron has to be treated like a domestic terrorist. It's sad that we have a vindictive justice system willing to flaunt the Constitution in this day and age with what effectively amounts to cruel and unusual punishment so they can "make an example" out of someone.

However, it's no one's fault that Aaron was so emboldened to take this initiative without sufficiently ensuring that he would be free from criminal prosecution.

Am I alone in thinking that these "hacktivists" will only prompt government to push more frivolous data theft laws and heavier punishment for offenses that may one day victimize hapless, innocent people? It's going to get a lot worse before it gets better.

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

#300

Post by jrockway »

kronusaturn wrote: post #91
jrockway wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a very frightening belief. How long until posting a negative comment to a blog is "unautorized access" to that blog? Gaining access was easy: all you had to do was type a comment and hit submit. But some Powers That Be decided they didn't really want you to post that, so now it's a federal computer crime. Land of the free.

This problem extends way beyond hacking laws—the average person in the US probably commits several felonies a day: http://www.threefelonies.com/Youtoo/tabid/86/Default.aspx

I read this book and think that federal crimes are punished too harshly, but the people profiled seem far from average.
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