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Aaron Swartz was prosecuted for scraping, while Meta does it without consequence

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Re: Aaron Swartz was prosecuted for scraping, while Meta does it without consequence

#81

Post by devnonymous »

milkytron wrote: post #3

The part that still bothers me so much about the US vs Swartz case is that JSTOR didn't pursue civil litigation against Aaron. It was the US government that pursued him. There was little for the government to lose in the case. In a case vs Meta, at the scale it has reached, it could have wide ranging economic implications limiting the investment in AI, which the US is absolutely not willing to pursue at this point in…

Who was it ? The ^US government^ .. or for that matter, any government or corporation doesn't pursue litigation. It is humans who make this decision (at least for now ...).

Who in the government bureaucracy made the decision and followed through? It's sad that we've become accustomed to accept governments/corporations as entities by themselves when they clearly aren't.

Re: Aaron Swartz was prosecuted for scraping, while Meta does it without consequence

#83

Post by PearlRiver »

milkytron wrote: post #3

The part that still bothers me so much about the US vs Swartz case is that JSTOR didn't pursue civil litigation against Aaron. It was the US government that pursued him. There was little for the government to lose in the case. In a case vs Meta, at the scale it has reached, it could have wide ranging economic implications limiting the investment in AI, which the US is absolutely not willing to pursue at this point in…

Is that not how it always goes? Robbing a bank got you in jail a lot longer than assaulting a woman.

Re: Aaron Swartz was prosecuted for scraping, while Meta does it without consequence

#84

Post by [deleted] »

jmward01 wrote: post #80
giantg2 wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Maybe the real issue is selective outrage about legal injustice." The real issue is selective enforcement of the law. If it applied equally to everyone, then more people would be outraged as it affected them.

Perfectly equal enforcement really isn't possible, but it should be the policy to enforce in proportion to active harm. The bigger the ongoing active harm, the quicker to react we should be. Some individual torrents a single movie? NBD. No matter the side of the argument you are on this should be ignored. A company intentionally throws content strikes causing legitimate harm to large numbers of content creators? That…

[deleted]

Re: Aaron Swartz was prosecuted for scraping, while Meta does it without consequence

#85

Post by watwut »

Barrin92 wrote: post #58
jherdman wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you’re going to leave a comment like this you need to at least outline your thinking as to why you feel they’re different.

not the OP but the heaviest charges against Swartz didn't stem from his IP infringement, it was wire fraud and computer fraud. He used a network access and MIT guest account he didn't have legal access to because he wasn't affiliated with the institution, which enabled the CFAA charges.

Expecting the prosecution for HuggingFace incident soon. Or at least full investigation whether it was accident

Must be any day now

Like common. You know full well that large companies can commit staggering amounts of fraud.

Re: Aaron Swartz was prosecuted for scraping, while Meta does it without consequence

#86

Post by 627467 »

sillysaurusx wrote: post #60

He wasn’t prosecuted for scraping. He trespassed into a room with a router, plugged his laptop into it, downloaded papers as quickly as possible, and then rotated his MAC address to dodge the bans that the admin was trying to place on him. That’s very different from downloading a webpage on the open internet. I’m not saying he should or shouldn’t have been prosecuted, but there’s some kind of rose tinted glasses filt…

> repeatedly broke in to a room

> rotated his MAC address

Do you really think these details drastically change how people should judge his actions vs those of a corporation?

Re: Aaron Swartz was prosecuted for scraping, while Meta does it without consequence

#87

Post by irishcoffee »

cortesoft wrote: post #72
arionhardison wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe the real issue is selective outrage about legal injustice. I totally agree that this was wrong and he should not have been prosecuted but a large part of the effort that dealt this injustice to him was facilitated by the fact that the vast majority of people willfully turn a blind eye when the same thing or worse happens to people are not of their ilk. If we were to finally stand up and say that justice for all…

I can't believe his lawyer didn't explain all of that to him? An important role for an attorney in this situation is as a counselor, to explain the actual reality and the possibilities.

I have had the misfortune of hiring many attorneys for a variety of different legal issues. They’re almost always fucking useless.

Re: Aaron Swartz was prosecuted for scraping, while Meta does it without consequence

#88

Post by throwaway563262 »

milkytron wrote: post #3

The part that still bothers me so much about the US vs Swartz case is that JSTOR didn't pursue civil litigation against Aaron. It was the US government that pursued him. There was little for the government to lose in the case. In a case vs Meta, at the scale it has reached, it could have wide ranging economic implications limiting the investment in AI, which the US is absolutely not willing to pursue at this point in…

[flagged]

Re: Aaron Swartz was prosecuted for scraping, while Meta does it without consequence

#89

Post by 9x39 »

627467 wrote: post #86
sillysaurusx wrote: post #60

He wasn’t prosecuted for scraping. He trespassed into a room with a router, plugged his laptop into it, downloaded papers as quickly as possible, and then rotated his MAC address to dodge the bans that the admin was trying to place on him. That’s very different from downloading a webpage on the open internet. I’m not saying he should or shouldn’t have been prosecuted, but there’s some kind of rose tinted glasses filt…

> repeatedly broke in to a room > rotated his MAC address Do you really think these details drastically change how people should judge his actions vs those of a corporation?

Yeah, intent matters. Evading security matters. It's a big point that his actions were intentional and not passive or accidental - not that IP infringement by corporations isn't its own discussion.

Re: Aaron Swartz was prosecuted for scraping, while Meta does it without consequence

#90

Post by ComplexSystems »

sillysaurusx wrote: post #60

He wasn’t prosecuted for scraping. He trespassed into a room with a router, plugged his laptop into it, downloaded papers as quickly as possible, and then rotated his MAC address to dodge the bans that the admin was trying to place on him. That’s very different from downloading a webpage on the open internet. I’m not saying he should or shouldn’t have been prosecuted, but there’s some kind of rose tinted glasses filt…

So what crime was he guilty of that Meta isn't? "Scraping too unsophisticatedly?"
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