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Official Statement from the family and partner of Aaron Swartz

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Re: Official Statement from the family and partner of Aaron Swartz

#101

Post by askimto »

rdl wrote: post #37
ghshephard wrote: post #24

I've been thinking about the family today, and what might have caused Aaron to make such a terrible decision. One thing that caught my attention, was Lessig's comment in his post: " ... Aaron Swartz be labeled a “felon.” For in the 18 months of negotiations, that was what he was not willing to accept, and so that was the reason he was facing a million dollar trial in April — his wealth bled dry, yet unable to appeal…

I want to know who specifically at MIT was involved in this. It seems antithetical to the MIT IT people I know (Jeff Schiller, etc.). There's no hope, really, of replacing the US Attorney Ortiz. MIT, however, actually has some indirect accountability to the tech community.

MIT is amoral.

Re: Official Statement from the family and partner of Aaron Swartz

#102

Post by larrys »

Perhaps someone could explain or confirm how anyone really knows that this is actually the "official" statement of the family and partners of Aaron. I understand that this was linked to in some major media, but I can find any way of determining that by the page itself or in any of the stories linking to it. There isn't any contact info and the domain name (which redirects there) was registered by this person:

Domain name: rememberaaronsw.com

Registrant Contact:

   Brian Guthrie ()
   
    
   179 Stockwell Dr
   Mountain View, CA 94043
   US
As I've mentioned in a comment elsewhere it seems odd to me that all these people got together and got this up so quickly after such a shocking event.

Here is one of the stories linked to it that doesn't verify the source:

http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/technology/2013/01/online-activi...

Re: Official Statement from the family and partner of Aaron Swartz

#103

Post by waterlesscloud »

danielweber wrote: post #83
waterlesscloud wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They made a choice to involve the feds. This could very easily have been handled internally, and the result would have been effective from their viewpoint. Catch him using the same methods and give him a stern talking to from campus police, then not press charges. Pretty much what happened to people bending and even openly breaking the rules on campuses around the world for decades, if not centuries. But someone at M…

They made a choice to involve the feds. Yes, because someone -- they did not know who, but someone -- kept on breaking into their network. Over and over and over and over. handled internally He wasn't a student. the result would have been effective from their viewpoint They kept on telling him "no" and he kept on going in anyway. It seems you think the 13th time they told him "no" he would have stopped, when he ignor…

Whether or not he was a student has nothing to do with whether or not MIT could choose to handle it internally.

And yes, I do believe that being taken in by campus law enforcement and read the riot act, so to speak, would have been effective. That's much more serious than the previous attempts to tell him no.

Re: Official Statement from the family and partner of Aaron Swartz

#104

Post by jlgreco »

biot wrote: post #82
igravious wrote: post #36

I don't think that I've ever seen anything like this (the sheer number of submissions related to one event) on HN before. I, like most others, follow the tussle between those who desire a world where the barrier to access information is lower and those who want to copyright, lock up and monetize all the information that we generate. Most of the time I feel that it is like a high tech soap opera but this events brings…

I am only vaguely familiar with Aaron Swartz, so the magnitude of the response on this site surprised me and reminds me of the HN front page when Steve Jobs died: http://www.waybackletter.com/archive/20111005.html

Unlike Jobs, Aaron was actually one of us.

Re: Official Statement from the family and partner of Aaron Swartz

#105

Post by frogtown »

rdl wrote: post #49
ghshephard wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What would cause an MIT IT executive (and this would have to be an executive decision) to bring in the Secret Service for someone running curl against academic journal website. I have done precisely that type of thing dozens of times in the last 10 years, and it would have never occurred to me that I was doing anything wrong. And yes, I always had to login first through a browser, figure out how the hell the cookie w…

He wasn't a member of the MIT Community, and was in a wiring closet. If they'd charged him with trespassing, I would have contributed to his legal defense fund and bought him a drink when he finished his ~30 days of community service or whatever. Minimal harm, minimal foul. I did way worse stuff from my machines at MIT when I was an undergrad. I actually was called to testify in a federal case over it, but told them…

Jennifer Granick is an awesome attorney and person. I remember meeting her at DefCon III when she was getting into this world of digital defense.

Re: Official Statement from the family and partner of Aaron Swartz

#106

Post by hollerith »

jhuni wrote: post #13
toyg wrote: post #4

Fuck yes, make them bleed. I can understand a US Attorney being reckless, but I cannot believe MIT would act so cowardly. If not even hacker-friendly institutions like MIT will side with people like Aaron, it's a sad state of affairs.

> If not even hacker-friendly institutions like MIT will side with people like Aaron, it's a sad state of affairs. MIT hasn't been a hacker-friendly institution since the early 1980s which is why Richard Stallman left MIT to found the free software movement.

Stallman stopped taking a salary from MIT so that MIT would have no claim of ownership of GNU. He continued (continues?) to keep on office on the campus, referring to himself as a "squatter".

Re: Official Statement from the family and partner of Aaron Swartz

#107

Post by nwh »

larrys wrote: post #102

Perhaps someone could explain or confirm how anyone really knows that this is actually the "official" statement of the family and partners of Aaron. I understand that this was linked to in some major media, but I can find any way of determining that by the page itself or in any of the stories linking to it. There isn't any contact info and the domain name (which redirects there) was registered by this person: Domain…

Guthrie seems to be a friend. Presumably he is working as a proxy.

> I've registered rememberaaronsw.com on behalf of Aaron's family, with whom we're in touch. Please do not be alarmed.

https://twitter.com/bguthrie/status/290220755642359808

Re: Official Statement from the family and partner of Aaron Swartz

#108

Post by bguthrie »

larrys wrote: post #102

Perhaps someone could explain or confirm how anyone really knows that this is actually the "official" statement of the family and partners of Aaron. I understand that this was linked to in some major media, but I can find any way of determining that by the page itself or in any of the stories linking to it. There isn't any contact info and the domain name (which redirects there) was registered by this person: Domain…

I was a colleague of Aaron's at ThoughtWorks (he joined early last year), and, I hope, a friend. We're devastated by his loss. For a history of the work he was doing over the last year, check https://github.com/victorykit/victorykit.

We're in close contact with Aaron's family and partner Taren. You can take my word for it or not, I guess, but the site and the statement are official.

Re: Official Statement from the family and partner of Aaron Swartz

#109

Post by biot »

jlgreco wrote: post #104
biot wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am only vaguely familiar with Aaron Swartz, so the magnitude of the response on this site surprised me and reminds me of the HN front page when Steve Jobs died: http://www.waybackletter.com/archive/20111005.html

Unlike Jobs, Aaron was actually one of us.

It's rather presumptuous for you to speak on behalf of everybody. I would consider them both "one of us", though I prefer to leave "us" vs. "them" labels to religious, political, and sports nuts.

Re: Official Statement from the family and partner of Aaron Swartz

#110

Post by rdl »

frogtown wrote: post #105
rdl wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He wasn't a member of the MIT Community, and was in a wiring closet. If they'd charged him with trespassing, I would have contributed to his legal defense fund and bought him a drink when he finished his ~30 days of community service or whatever. Minimal harm, minimal foul. I did way worse stuff from my machines at MIT when I was an undergrad. I actually was called to testify in a federal case over it, but told them…

Jennifer Granick is an awesome attorney and person. I remember meeting her at DefCon III when she was getting into this world of digital defense.

Yeah, I remember she was winding down her drunk driving practice when I first talked to her. I kind of miss the 90s -- fighting ITAR was a whole lot less depressing than fighting hollywood-funded congresspeople.
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