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Aaron Swartz commits suicide

tech.mit.edu

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Re: Aaron Swartz commits suicide

#471

Post by Alex3917 »

larrys wrote: post #457
jacquesm wrote: post #440

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't. How do you know she isn't? Until I have evidence to the contrary I tend to believe what people say.

"How do you know she isn't?" I questioned what you said I didn't (when I asked you) state that the poster wasn't his mother. I don't know that she is or isn't. That said I will now say that I feel that it's highly unlikely that a mother who has lost her son to suicide is going to open up a HN account [1] and post something when a loss like this happens. Of course if a HN admin has access to IP addresses or where and…

He worked on Reddit, which is very similar to HN. It's not that unlikely.

Re: Aaron Swartz commits suicide

#472

Post by sciurus »

chimeracoder wrote: post #449
tesmar2 wrote: post #354

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is terrible news, but, not knowing much about the case, how was it morally right to download a bunch of pay-for documents?

Someone on Reddit explained this better than I can, but JSTOR is basically a scam. It pockets the money that it receives and doesn't pay anything back to the authors. As an author, you yourself have to pay for access to your own work (or your university does, via a subscription). JSTOR has scholarly articles dating back centuries - when you consider that that information deserves to be free, and the societal cost of…

In the copyright wars, JSTOR is hardly a bad actor compared to the publishers. It's a nonprofit formed by libraries so that there would be a single entity to negotiate with publishers and digitize journals. I'm not saying they've always moved as quickly and aggressively as I'd like, but calling their existence "practically a crime" strikes me as very wrong. If they didn't exist, most libraries wouldn't have access to the journals JSTOR archives.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JSTOR

Re: Aaron Swartz commits suicide

#473

Post by fotoblur »

chimeracoder wrote: post #449
tesmar2 wrote: post #354

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is terrible news, but, not knowing much about the case, how was it morally right to download a bunch of pay-for documents?

Someone on Reddit explained this better than I can, but JSTOR is basically a scam. It pockets the money that it receives and doesn't pay anything back to the authors. As an author, you yourself have to pay for access to your own work (or your university does, via a subscription). JSTOR has scholarly articles dating back centuries - when you consider that that information deserves to be free, and the societal cost of…

I don't know much about this system JSTOR, but you know with what you said about "scholarly articles dating back centuries" I'd expect them to have some costs associated with those efforts. Its not a popular way to raise money, yes, but who else are you going to charge other than the people interested in using that system...just saying.

Re: Aaron Swartz commits suicide

#474

Post by throwit1979 »

lopatin wrote: post #36
cremnob wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why are you assuming he did it because of his legal problems?

Because he was a brilliant and loved computer programmer who was facing 35 years in prison. Can you imagine the US Attorneys office treating you in the same manner they treat rapists because you wrote a downloader script? I'd say it's a very reasonable assumption. RIP Aaron

Can you imagine the US Attorneys office treating you in the same manner they treat rapists because you wrote a downloader script?

Minor nitpick: The "justice" system treats rapists far better. Typical sentencing for rapists is 112 months, of which the typical rapist will serve half, from a system( rape is usually a state-level crime )with conviction rates hovering around 65%. Aaron was facing 3-4 times that, in a system( the federal courts )with a conviction rate over 90%.

Re: Aaron Swartz commits suicide

#476

Post by rprasad »

chimeracoder wrote: post #449
tesmar2 wrote: post #354

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is terrible news, but, not knowing much about the case, how was it morally right to download a bunch of pay-for documents?

Someone on Reddit explained this better than I can, but JSTOR is basically a scam. It pockets the money that it receives and doesn't pay anything back to the authors. As an author, you yourself have to pay for access to your own work (or your university does, via a subscription). JSTOR has scholarly articles dating back centuries - when you consider that that information deserves to be free, and the societal cost of…

JSTOR is a non-profit created to store scholarly articles and maintain archives of scholarly work for future access. JSTOR is and was a driving force behind the digitalization of scholarly works and most academic journals. JSTOR's sole function is to maintain these archives, even if/when it is not commercially viable to do so.

All of this costs money. Universities and companies pay for JSTOR so that it can keep doing its job. More importantly, universities and companies pay for JSTOR so that they don't have to take on the burdens of maintaining complete archives of all academic works.

Re: Aaron Swartz commits suicide

#477

Post by bilalghalib »

beadmomsw wrote: post #252

Thank you all for your kind words and thoughts. Aaron has been depressed about his case/upcoming trial, but we had no idea what he was going through was this painful. Aaron was a terrific young man. He contributed a lot to the world in his short life and I regret the loss of all the things he had yet to accomplish. As you can imagine, we all miss him dearly. The grief is unfathomable. Aaron's mother

I'm crying and I've never met him. Seeing the love people are showing and his impact is inspiring.

Re: Aaron Swartz commits suicide

#478

Post by mtrimpe »

beadmomsw wrote: post #252

Thank you all for your kind words and thoughts. Aaron has been depressed about his case/upcoming trial, but we had no idea what he was going through was this painful. Aaron was a terrific young man. He contributed a lot to the world in his short life and I regret the loss of all the things he had yet to accomplish. As you can imagine, we all miss him dearly. The grief is unfathomable. Aaron's mother

I am so sorry for your loss. I don't know what to say, but may you find every piece of strength there is to find to pull yourself through this.

Re: Aaron Swartz commits suicide

#480

Post by dreamdu5t »

beadmomsw wrote: post #252

Thank you all for your kind words and thoughts. Aaron has been depressed about his case/upcoming trial, but we had no idea what he was going through was this painful. Aaron was a terrific young man. He contributed a lot to the world in his short life and I regret the loss of all the things he had yet to accomplish. As you can imagine, we all miss him dearly. The grief is unfathomable. Aaron's mother

Aaron was amazing. Sorry for your loss. He was and is an inspiration to many people like me.
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