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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

#121

Post by aw3c2 »

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

I think it is actually not a good thing that a suicide leads to this much attention. it might encourage others to choose death to be turned into martyrs. same as the coverage from school homicides.

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

#122

Post by anoncow »

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…

The folks at wherever, will do anything to save their skins. MIT is no different.

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

#123

Post by anoncow »

doktrin wrote: post #119
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…

Yes. With all the information and POV accounts that have surfaced today, I can't help but wonder if I truly would have acted differently in his shoes. The prospect of ruining your own family in a protracted legal battle with the DOJ is nothing short of a nightmare. There but for the grace of God, as they say. This country can be a terrifying place, although I myself occasionally forget it.

I wouldn't be surprised if they made a law making the family responsible for the crimes.

This might not occur in this case, but I see lobbyists wanting money for all those movies your children watched for free.

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

#124

Post by anoncow »

colechristensen wrote: post #58
stesch wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No. Every post with a tumblr.com link gets automatically banned. A week ago I posted something to a subreddit I've founded and it got banned. This spam filter isn't even allowing moderators to post these links. But I was allowed to unban it. So, I wrote to the moderators of /r/technology a few minutes ago and instead of unbanning it they said that tumblr.com is banned reddit wide. No, he hasn't unbanned the link. :-(

Despite the occasional high value link, the reddit ban on tumblr makes reddit better.

I suspect the decision was to maintain the quality of posts.

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

#125

Post by stesch »

colechristensen wrote: post #67
colmvp wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Whereas quickmeme.com is edifying?

Fortunately or not, there are whole sections of Reddit devoted more or less to quickmeme.com. Some subreddits auto-ban quickmeme which I highly encourage, but a sitewide ban is unreasonable because of how engrained it is in the culture. Image captioning is, in our opinion, a bit worthless, but this is what we actually find objectionable not just one site of many which provides this. Blogging itself is not what is obj…

Where is the option to auto-ban certain domains? I've never seen it.

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

#126

Post by LnxPrgr3 »

rdl wrote: post #116
genwin wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It's entirely possible his (great) IP law firm could have gotten him off, or at least ended up with a brief or suspended sentence. That is possible. But what life would he have then, with $1.5 million of debt? If not for my kids I'd probably jump off a cliff myself than work a lifetime paying that off.

I think he had some assets from Reddit, as well as some of the work being pro bono, and contributions. Killing yourself over $1.5mm in debt is not rational. You can default on it and go bankrupt and be back to normal in 7-10 years. You can get most of it written off. You can do consulting for 5-10 years and live slightly frugally and probably pay enough of it off to have the rest written off. You can start 1/1000th o…

Depression isn't rational.

I can't say I've been depressed—I'm not qualified to diagnose that. I can say I've felt so hopeless I've made an attempt on my own life. Thankfully, it was a pretty lame attempt (after a lot of alcohol) that I aborted, leaving only a ring around my neck as evidence. I failed to even send myself to the hospital.

It's more than hopelessness. Life felt like an unbearable burden, a source of pain that would never end… until I ended it.

My life wasn't actually hopeless. My problems weren't as bad as they seemed—literally the day after this began the best two or three years of my adult life.

Had I been more competent, or maybe just more committed, I wouldn't have been around for that to happen. And there's no way you could've talked me into believing I'd appreciate living to see tomorrow—the very problem was I believed my life would be more of the same until I died, and I welcomed death over what I thought life had in store for me.

This story cuts deep for me because I survived and this man who's contributed so much more to society than I have didn't make it. It also cuts deep because I fear going back to that place, and seeing another man fall makes me fear a little for my own life. I've done my research since: if I try again, I'm convinced I'll succeed.

I'm among the most rational people I know. My own family thinks I'm just about incapable of emotion. Yet I've struggled with this.

People aren't rational. Not even the rational ones.

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

#127

Post by jacquesm »

duaneb wrote: post #34
wololo wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What changed?

He's being hyperbolic; MIT is still a very friendly hacker school. Aaron DID break the law, and I would not expect ANY school to stand behind him when he blatantly violated the law. It's pretty simple: don't break the law, much less using MIT resources to do so. That said, they could have handled it with a lot more finesse, especially when it is such horrible publicity for them. I suspect this has more to do with eag…

> Aaron DID break the law

Are you sure about that?

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

#129

Post by rogerthis »

colechristensen wrote: post #61
rogerthis wrote: post #47

Being a chronic depressed and chronic pain sufferer, I wonder how much problems like these contributed to him killing himself. I think about killing myself everyday. I haven't done it yet because I am a devout Catholic and I believe I can be in a worst place (or better) after death.

By all means let us know what we can do to keep life interesting!

Don't worry. I have the support from doctors, family, friends. And the afterlife keeps this life interesting.
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