I've been having a tough time tracking down more information on this so I'll ask here. What exactly did MIT do (or not do) that people want to protest? Is it that MIT pursued legal action, or did not try and help Swartz out?
1/13 noon at MIT: Protest wrongful prosecution of Aaron Swartz
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Re: 1/13 noon at MIT: Protest wrongful prosecution of Aaron Swartz
#52I've been having a tough time tracking down more information on this so I'll ask here. What exactly did MIT do (or not do) that people want to protest? Is it that MIT pursued legal action, or did not try and help Swartz out?
30 years in prison and up to $1 million in fines for downloading files publicly accessible to anyone in the MIT network.
This is the proverbial straw that's getting people to realize and understand just how fucked up the law is when it comes to digital "crimes".
Re: 1/13 noon at MIT: Protest wrongful prosecution of Aaron Swartz
#53Just for Aaron? Oh man, what about every one else? US law is insane, hurting too many people to list. Mostly, Americans, but also world citizens who don't even get to vote in the US. You need to deal with law its self, not this one single individual. Not just the law, but I suspect your entire value system. I had sympathy yesterday, but this is turning in to hero martyr worship. Its getting ridiculous. Step back and…
It is often useful, in advancing causes, to put a sympathetic, concrete face on an amorphous cause.
"Save kittens" --> no one cares
"Save this kitten" --> everyone cares
You can think of this as hacking the human psyche, if you like.
Re: 1/13 noon at MIT: Protest wrongful prosecution of Aaron Swartz
#54I've been taking all of this in trying to both formulate a reasonably valid mental framework to understand and, yes, be able to personally judge or form an opinion about this entire story. Not an easy task when you don't have direct knowledge of the facts and the people involved and, to make matters worst, morons add noise to the wire. To say that this is a catastrophe at many levels is an understatement. This should…
> If it is true that MIT initiated this and they, along with JSTOR, could have made tons of noise to pull back the DOJ, they really need to engage in deep introspection in order to make sure this never happens again.
A person suspected of breaking federal law will be prosecuted by the Federal government at its own discretion. The alleged victims get no say in that. Their forgiveness may be taken into account by a judge at sentencing, but it has nothing at all to do with the pursuit of prosecution. In fact, a federal prosecutor would be behaving in an impeachable way to fail to pursue a violation of federal law.
Re: 1/13 noon at MIT: Protest wrongful prosecution of Aaron Swartz
#55How about boycotting MIT - the institution.
I thought MIT was only going after Aaron because JSTOR was threatening to cut off their access if they didn't stop him?
Re: 1/13 noon at MIT: Protest wrongful prosecution of Aaron Swartz
#56Is there a livestream?
Re: 1/13 noon at MIT: Protest wrongful prosecution of Aaron Swartz
#57How ironic that this did not happen when it could have made a difference.
One thing I wish Aaron had done while he was alive was be as diligent as rallying support for himself as he did for the anti-SOPA efforts. For civic-minded people, it's almost always easier to drum up support for a cause than for yourself...still...had he been relentless -- he could've posted bimonthly updates on the case and made the top of HN, Reddit, BoingBoing, etc -- all of us would've had his case near the top of our minds. As it is, I can't be the only one who hadn't thought about JSTOR in awhile, and had assumed that his defense (given his skills and his alliances) was going as well as it possibly could.
A Redditor started the campaign to raise $700K for the bullied bus driver. How easily that could've been raised for Aaron http://www.columbiatribune.com/wire/bullied-bus-driver-fund-...
Re: 1/13 noon at MIT: Protest wrongful prosecution of Aaron Swartz
#58I've been taking all of this in trying to both formulate a reasonably valid mental framework to understand and, yes, be able to personally judge or form an opinion about this entire story. Not an easy task when you don't have direct knowledge of the facts and the people involved and, to make matters worst, morons add noise to the wire. To say that this is a catastrophe at many levels is an understatement. This should…
"At some level you do have to blame him. No, not for downloading files but rather for making the decision to end his life."
I wouldn't blame him for ending his life. I would say there is responsibility however on his part, to have found and kept enough support around him to counter-balance whatever he was diving into; There's also responsibility on society's part to provide and facilitate that support - and to make sure powers/controls are kept in check and balance (proportional to the alleged offense, and based on society's evolving values). Perhaps he thought he was though and underestimated the pressures and how it would affect him. Sometimes when I have eureka moments, on the positive side, they initiate a very powerful chain reaction in my thinking and focus. I could see the same thing happening if you've created lots of justifications as to why "pending doom" may not hit you, may not be real - and something could happen that makes it very real and all of that pending doom could flood in and cascade as doom.
Re: 1/13 noon at MIT: Protest wrongful prosecution of Aaron Swartz
#59Just for Aaron? Oh man, what about every one else? US law is insane, hurting too many people to list. Mostly, Americans, but also world citizens who don't even get to vote in the US. You need to deal with law its self, not this one single individual. Not just the law, but I suspect your entire value system. I had sympathy yesterday, but this is turning in to hero martyr worship. Its getting ridiculous. Step back and…
Guys, you in US really need new kind of anti-establisment movement, because you are fighting against Goliat here. MIT and others ARE part of establishment and if establishment decide to take control over internet, they will do it. Wait, they ARE DOING it right now and as you can see people are getting killed just because someone said "i want you to click and pay". Damn, if someone said to me few decades ago that internet will be this way, i would not belive it. Personally i call last 10 years: era of Internet colonisation.
Sorry on bad English.
Re: 1/13 noon at MIT: Protest wrongful prosecution of Aaron Swartz
#60Just for Aaron? Oh man, what about every one else? US law is insane, hurting too many people to list. Mostly, Americans, but also world citizens who don't even get to vote in the US. You need to deal with law its self, not this one single individual. Not just the law, but I suspect your entire value system. I had sympathy yesterday, but this is turning in to hero martyr worship. Its getting ridiculous. Step back and…
It is often useful, in advancing causes, to put a sympathetic, concrete face on an amorphous cause. "Save kittens" --> no one cares "Save this kitten" --> everyone cares You can think of this as hacking the human psyche, if you like.
It makes it more digestible too. "Save kittens" aka "Save all kittens" - this can divide your attention and distract you thinking about all of those kittens, and then feeling overwhelmed. This of course takes away from focusing on the base issue - much more nuanced and subtle to deal with. It's not easy educating people about nuances either. You need their attention, and you need to cut through all of the noise they've heard.