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Aaron Swartz: his death and legacy

On Friday January 11, 2013, well-known online activist and hacker Aaron Swartz committed suicide in New York at the age of 26. An internet legend, Swartz had been active since he was in his early teens, helping to build well-known products such as RSS and Reddit. He was also a founder of Demand Progress. Swartz's death has quickly led to an outpouring of online remembrances, but also of calls to action. Swartz was indicted on federal charges in 2011 for a mass download of articles from copyrighted academic database JSTOR while on the campus of MIT. His case was set to go to trial this spring.You can find all of our articles about Aaron Swartz and his legacy here.

  • Michael Zelenko

    Jun 27, 2014

    Michael Zelenko

    'The Internet's Own Boy: The Story of Aaron Swartz' review

    In the months after Aaron Swartz’s suicide in January 2013, members of the media spent hundreds of hours meditating on how a 26-year-old programmer, hacker, and political organizer could have accomplished so much so quickly, and then suddenly and unexpectedly taken his own life. Here at The Verge, Tim Carmody documented Swartz’s accomplishments, confronting myth with facts. Larissa MacFarquhar penned a devastating, complex, and beautiful 11,000-word profile of the young man for The New Yorker. The Atlantic, New York magazine, Slate, Rolling Stone and others weighed in, to various degrees of success.

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  • Jun 20, 2014

    Colin Lecher

    Aaron Swartz documentary 'The Internet's Own Boy' now available for pre-order

    Since taking his own life in early 2013 while faced with a possible 35 years in prison for hacking charges, Aaron Swartz's prosecution has been the cause célèbre of many digital activists. The Internet's Own Boy, a documentary chronicling Swartz's life and legacy — from his work on RSS, Reddit, and Creative Commons to his prosecution for downloading millions of scholarly files — is being released in an appropriately web-friendly format: a DRM-free download, available now for pre-order. Timed to its theatrical release on June 27th, the film will be available to stream for $6.99 through Vimeo on Demand, iTunes, Amazon Instant Video, Comcast, and DirecTV. For the first month of its release, it will be available to purchase through Vimeo on Demand for $9.99, before opening up to other platforms.

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  • Jacob Kastrenakes

    Apr 28, 2014

    Jacob Kastrenakes

    Watch the trailer for Aaron Swartz documentary 'The Internet's Own Boy'

    Those advocating for the reform of hacking laws have rallied around Aaron Swartz's cause from the beginnings of his prosecution through his suicide last year while facing with the possibility of 35 years in prison. In the short time since, filmmaker Brian Knappenberger has created The Internet's Own Boy, a documentary that traces Swartz's early impact on the web and details his struggle with the government after being caught downloading a mass of copyrighted articles from the digital library JSTOR. The film premiered in January at Sundance, where Swartz's father and brothers were around to speak about Aaron, his case, and his work. Its first trailer has just debuted, and the documentary itself will be released on June 27th.

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  • Casey Newton

    Jan 23, 2014

    Casey Newton

    'The Internet's Own Boy' fights for reform after Aaron Swartz's death

    Swartz’s story was widely chronicled in real time, including here on The Verge. Now his life and death are being profiled in a compelling new feature-length documentary. The Internet’s Own Boy, directed by Brian Knappenberger (We Are Legion: The Story of the Hacktivists) represents an effort to bring Swartz’s story to a wider audience, one that is less steeped in the fight for unfettered access to information. The film, which premiered this week at the Sundance Film Festival, personalizes the story in part by introducing us to Swartz’s parents and brothers. Like many of us, they are still struggling to understand what happened to Aaron — and whether any positive change can result from the tragedy.

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  • Sean Hollister

    Oct 16, 2013

    Sean Hollister

    Aaron Swartz's legacy lives on: SecureDrop is a WikiLeaks for any journalist

    Aaron Swartz - SOPA (Flickr)
    Aaron Swartz - SOPA (Flickr)

    In May, The New Yorker revealed what hacktivist Aaron Swartz was building before his untimely death: an encrypted dead drop system that would let whistleblowers leak documents to journalists without fear of exposing their identity. The New Yorker launched its own implementation, Strongbox, and other media outlets were free to do the same — but in August, noted security researchers at the University of Washington reported that DeadDrop wasn't quite ready for primetime, citing issues installing and using the software among many other things.That's where Aaron Swartz's legacy stood — until today.

    Today, the Freedom of the Press Foundation has announced that it has taken over the project, specifically hiring computer security expert James Dolan full-time to maintain the code, help media organizations install the software, and teach them how to use it well. The organization plans to address "virtually all" of the recommendations made by the University of Washington security researchers, and says it's already addressed a number of specific issues that were pointed out. While the Freedom of the Press Foundation is clear that SecureDrop isn't 100 percent secure, the organization says that it's the safest method for communicating with anonymous sources yet, and hopes to make it safer still. If you're interested, you can contribute to Aaron Swartz's open-source legacy at this Github repository.

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  • Jeff Blagdon

    Aug 12, 2013

    Jeff Blagdon

    First Secret Service documents on Aaron Swartz investigation released

    aaron swartz (quinn norton flickr)
    aaron swartz (quinn norton flickr)

    The public is seeing the first fruits of a Freedom of Information Act request for the Secret Service’s files on the late hacker and activist Aaron Swartz with the release of 104 pages of agency documents. Swartz committed suicide at the age of 26 while facing the possibility of up to 35 years in prison for the bulk downloading of some 70 gigabytes of academic papers from the JSTOR repository on the MIT campus.

    The request was filed by Wired’s Kevin Poulsen, who reports that the documents describe a February, 2011 search on Swartz’s home — effected over a month after he was first arrested by campus police. According to the Secret Service report, Swartz "made statements to the effect of, what took you so long, and why didn’t you do this earlier?"

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  • Adi Robertson

    Jul 30, 2013

    Adi Robertson

    MIT denies targeting Aaron Swartz, but admits 'neutral' stance gave FBI the upper hand

    MIT has finally released a report on its role in the prosecution of hacktivist Aaron Swartz — a legal battle that's been blamed for spurring his suicide in January of 2013. In an open letter, president R. Rafael Reif said that the report would show that MIT "did not seek federal prosecution, punishment or jail time" for Swartz after finding that he had used MIT's network to access and mass-download articles from academic repository JSTOR. The report, compiled by Professor Hal Abelson and others, finds that MIT didn't actively aggravate the case that would consume Swartz's life, saying there was no "silver bullet" that could have prevented the tragedy of his death. However, it also raises questions about the stance that the university should have taken, and the strength of the case against him.

    "If the Review Panel is forced to highlight just one issue for reflection, we would choose to look to the MIT administration's maintenance of a 'neutral' hands-off attitude that regarded the prosecution as a legal dispute to which it was not a party," it reads. "This attitude was complemented by the MIT community's apparent lack of attention to the ruinous collision of hacker ethics, open-source ideals, questionable laws, and aggressive prosecutions that was playing out in its midst." Later, it quotes one source as saying "MIT didn't do anything wrong; but we didn't do ourselves proud."

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  • Nathan Ingraham

    Jul 19, 2013

    Nathan Ingraham

    MIT intervenes in FOIA release of Aaron Swartz documents, seeks 'pre-release review'

    aaron swartz lead
    aaron swartz lead

    Earlier this month, it was revealed that documents relating to the Secret Service's investigation into hacker and activist Aaron Swartz would be released under a freedom of information act (FOIA) request from Wired reporter Kevin Poulsen — but now Poulsen has indicated that their release has been delayed thanks to a motion filed by MIT. According to Poulsen's report in Wired and corroborated by court documents, MIT today filed a motion to intervene to review the documents prior to their release to Poulsen, with a request for an expedited hearing to take place on or before July 25th.

    The court documents also indicate that MIT wants to delay the release of the Secret Services files by five business days so it can review them for any information describing MIT's employees or networks. Apparently, MIT wants to redact any information that might out MIT employees who assisted with the Aaron Swartz prosecution to protect the privacy of its employees and the security of its network — it sounds like the university is concerned with possible retribution from those who strongly disagreed with the government's prosecution of Swartz.

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  • Dann Berg

    Jul 9, 2013

    Dann Berg

    Aaron Swartz's Secret Service files to be released in small victory for transparency

    Aaron Swartz
    Aaron Swartz

    Following months of delays, the public will finally have access to the Secret Service's records on Aaron Swartz, the activist and hacker who tragically committed suicide amid a lawsuit regarding bulk downloads from the JSTOR academic database. The Secret Service has fought to withhold the files about Swartz, denying a Freedom of Information Act request from Wired's Kevin Poulsen by citing sensitive information regarding ongoing proceedings, despite the case being dismissed following Swartz's death.

    Most of the academic articles downloaded from the JSTOR database where within the public domain yet remained locked behind a paywall. Swartz created a program to save these articles in bulk with plans to release these documents for free, thus prompting the Secret Service investigation and subsequent lawsuit. Two days prior to his suicide, JSTOR implemented a program offering free but limited public access to its databases.

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  • Adi Robertson

    May 15, 2013

    Adi Robertson

    The New Yorker launches Strongbox, an anonymous inbox developed by Aaron Swartz

    security code graphic
    security code graphic

    Before his suicide in January, hacktivist Aaron Swartz was working on an ambitious project: an encrypted dead drop system that could receive and protect files from anonymous sources. Wired editor Kevin Poulsen, who met Swartz when his site Reddit was sold to Condé Nast (which owns both Wired and The New Yorker), had asked him to help design a secure and anonymous inbox for investigative reporting. Over the course of a year, Poulsen and Swartz worked out the system with help from security expert James Dolan, creating a stable version by December 2012.

    But the tentative launch plans were derailed by Swartz's death. "In the immediate aftermath, it was hard to think of anything but the loss and pain of his death," writes Poulsen. "A launch, like so many things, was secondary." In the months afterwards, though, he put together the remaining pieces and offered it to The New Yorker. Today, The New Yorker launched its implementation of the system, called Strongbox.

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  • Jeff Blagdon

    Mar 14, 2013

    Jeff Blagdon

    US Attorney's Office accused of deliberately withholding evidence in Aaron Swartz trial

    Aaron Swartz’s former lawyer in the JSTOR case, Elliot Peters, is accusing federal prosecutor Stephen Heymann of professional misconduct, alleging that he deliberately withheld an email that would have helped suppress illegally-acquired evidence. In a complaint filed January 28th and published by The Huffington Post, Peters accuses the Assistant US Attorney of violating his duty of candor to the court, as well as using an "extreme" plea offer to "coerce" a deal, and requests a formal investigation by the Department of Justice into the matter.

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  • Janus Kopfstein

    Mar 13, 2013

    Janus Kopfstein

    Aaron Swartz to receive posthumous 'Freedom of Information' award for open access advocacy

    Swartz Program
    Swartz Program

    Internet activist and Reddit co-founder Aaron Swartz is slated to receive posthumous recognition in Washington for his efforts promoting free access to taxpayer-funded research.

    The James Madison Freedom of Information Award is administered by the American Library Association, and recognizes "individuals who have championed, protected and promoted public access to government information and the public’s right to know national information."

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  • Adi Robertson

    Mar 6, 2013

    Adi Robertson

    Attorney General Holder defends Swartz case as 'a good use of prosecutorial discretion'

    via puu.sh
    via puu.sh

    Attorney General Eric Holder has defended the Justice Department's treatment of Aaron Swartz, saying that it was an example of "a good use of prosecutorial discretion." In a Senate hearing today, John Cornyn (R-TX) asked Holder for a response to his questions about Swartz's prosecution for copying articles from JSTOR — he's previously suggested that the Justice Department overzealously prosecuted Swartz as retaliation for a previous case or to "make an example" of him. In response, Holder said that protests have focused too heavily on the heavy jail sentence Swartz faced, and that prosecutors never intended him to spend more than a few months in prison.

    "These news reports about what he was actually facing are not consistent with the interaction was between the government and Mr. Swartz," Holder said. "A plea offer was made to him of three months before the indictment. This case could have been resolved with a plea of three months." Later offers expanded that to four or six months, but "There was never an intention for him to go to jail for longer than a three, four, potentially five-month range. That is what the government said specifically to Mr. Swartz, and those offers were rejected." Cornyn pressed on, asking whether Holder "found it odd to indict someone for crimes that would carry penalties of up to 35 years in prison and million-dollar fines and then offer him a three- or four-month prison sentence."

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  • Sam Byford

    Feb 13, 2013

    Sam Byford

    Petition to fire Aaron Swartz prosecutor reaches threshold for White House response

    Swartz Memorial Program
    Swartz Memorial Program

    The White House must reply to an online petition requesting the removal of Assistant U.S. Attorney Stephen Heymann, who prosecuted Aaron Swartz before his death, after it reached the threshold of 25,000 signatures. The "We the People" online tool raised the number of responses needed to trigger a mandatory reply to 100,000 last month, but the move wasn't retroactive; the Steve Heymann petition was filed just a few days before the change went into place.

    As such, the Obama administration may now wade into the controversial debate over Aaron Swartz's death and the heavy approach taken towards cybercrime prosecution in the US. It's worth noting, however, that this doesn't guarantee a swift response — the most popular petition on the site, demanding the classification of the Westboro Baptist Church as a hate group, has yet to be addressed despite reaching the 25,000 goal back in December.

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  • Bryan Bishop

    Feb 9, 2013

    Bryan Bishop

    Aaron Swartz's battle to free the PACER legal document database

    Swartz Memorial Program
    Swartz Memorial Program

    26-year-old Aaron Swartz died tragically this year amidst threats from federal prosecutors over his involvement with downloading texts from the JSTOR academic collection. Ars Technica takes a look at an earlier effort by Swartz to liberate documents from the legal filing database known as PACER. An acronym for Public Access to Court Electronic Records, PACER lets the public pull US court filings — at a cost (it currently runs 10 cents per page, which can add up rather quickly when combing through lengthy legal documents). PACER also features in a recent profile from Slate, which covers Swartz's ideological evolution from an inquisitive young man to someone who, in the words of his friend Seth Schoen, believed he could "fix the world mainly by carefully explaining it to people." Check out both the Ars Technica article and the Slate profile; you'll be glad you did.

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  • Bryan Bishop

    Jan 29, 2013

    Bryan Bishop

    House Committee asks Attorney General for briefing on Aaron Swartz prosecution concerns

    Aaron Swartz (flickr)
    Aaron Swartz (flickr)

    US Representative Darrell Issa (R-CA) already let it be known that he would be looking into whether federal prosecutors had gone overboard in their prosecution of Aaron Swartz, and now he's following through on that promise. In a letter today from the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, both Issa and fellow Representative Elijah Cummings asked US Attorney General Eric Holder for a briefing about the decision by federal prosecutors to bring charges against Swartz. "Many questions have been raised about the appropriate level of punishment sought by prosecutors for Mr. Swartz's alleged offenses," the letter reads, "and how the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, cited in 11 of 13 counts against Mr. Swartz, should apply under similar circumstances."

    The letter goes on to ask for further information on seven different points, including what spurred the decision to prosecute Swartz, what plea offers had been made to him, and if any evidence had even been uncovered that Swartz had committed "hacking violations" beyond the downloading of articles from JSTOR.

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  • Tim Carmody

    Jan 22, 2013

    Tim Carmody

    Memory to myth: tracing Aaron Swartz through the 21st century

    I met Aaron Swartz in Cambridge shortly after he’d been indicted for downloading lots of JSTOR articles on MIT’s network in 2011. My Wired colleague Ryan Singel had been writing about his story, and I’d talked a lot with my friends in academia and publishing about the problems of putting scholarship behind a paywall, but that was really the level at which I was approaching it. I was there to have brunch with friends I’d known a long time only through the internet, and I hadn’t known Aaron that way. I certainly didn’t want to use the brunch to put on my journalist hat and pepper him with questions. He was there primarily to see his partner Quinn Norton’s daughter Ada, with whom he had a special bond. The two of them spent most of their time playing in the bedroom, behind where the rest of us sat, ate, and talked; sometimes you could hear them laughing together from the living room. And that’s mostly how I think of him still: a too-young father figure who occupied an immense role in the lives of people close to me.

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  • Aaron Souppouris

    Jan 21, 2013

    Aaron Souppouris

    How a phone call made Aaron Swartz join the fight against SOPA

    Aaron Swartz - SOPA (Flickr)
    Aaron Swartz - SOPA (Flickr)

    On the one-year anniversary of the international SOPA blackout, BuzzFeed published an excerpt from Hacking Politics: How Geeks, Progressives, The Tea Party, Gamers, Anarchists and Suits Teamed Up To Defeat SOPA and Save the Internet, a book that catalogued the fight against the controversial piracy bill. The excerpt, an essay by Aaron Swartz, details how a simple phone call caused the Reddit co-founder to take notice of COICA, a proposal that later formed part of the ill-fated SOPA act. After being persuaded that the bill was an attack not only on piracy, but on freedom of speech, Swartz joined many others in (successfully) lobbying against the proposal. You can read Swartz's story over at BuzzFeed, or pickup the full collection of essays from OR Books at the price of your choosing.

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  • Tim Carmody

    Jan 20, 2013

    Tim Carmody

    Aaron Swartz memorial evokes strong emotions and political urgency

    Swartz Memorial Program
    Swartz Memorial Program

    Aaron Swartz's family funeral was held this week in Chicago, but on Saturday, New York hosted a public memorial. Organizers reported an attendance of just under 900, filling Cooper Union's Great Hall to standing-room capacity, with many more watching the livestream at Democracy Now! Friends, family, and colleagues spoke of Swartz's personal stories and enormous ideals, and urged those in attendance to political action and self-reflection.

    "We talk about how extraordinary he was, but actually, he wasn't," said friend and former partner Quinn Norton, rejecting the emerging portrait of Swartz as an "internet saint." "He was scared and self-conscious. He could be funny, and greedy, and petty, and loving, and curious, and hopeful, and strange," she said. "But in a culture that is ruled by fear, he learned and taught me that trying is more important than being afraid."

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  • Adi Robertson

    Jan 19, 2013

    Adi Robertson

    Senator John Cornyn accuses Eric Holder of prosecuting Aaron Swartz as 'retaliation'

    via puu.sh
    via puu.sh

    Senator and Minority Whip John Cornyn (R-TX) has written to Attorney General Eric Holder about the case against activist Aaron Swartz, suggesting that the Department of Justice was attempting to "make an example" of him. In an open letter, Cornyn said the case raised several questions about how US Attorney Carmen Ortiz prosecuted Swartz for downloading articles from JSTOR, despite JSTOR's lack of interest in pressing charges. Two US Representatives have raised questions about the Justice Department's conduct — Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-CA) has sponsored legislation and Darrell Issa (R-CA) is investigating the case — but this marks the first time a Senator has taken up the cause.

    Cornyn suggests that the case against Swartz was motivated by a previous tangle with the Justice Department, likely in 2009, when he was investigated for downloading and sharing millions of PACER legal documents. Swartz would later file a Freedom of Information Act request for his own FBI file. "Was the prosecution of Aaron Swartz in any way retaliation for for his exercise of his rights as a citizen under the Freedom of Information Act?" Cornyn asked. "What role, if any, did the Department's prior investigations of Mr. Swartz play in the decision of with which crimes to charge him?"

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  • Tim Carmody

    Jan 19, 2013

    Tim Carmody

    WikiLeaks claims Aaron Swartz was an ally and possible source, breaking anonymity

    aaron swartz
    aaron swartz

    Aaron Swartz died a week ago. A public memorial service in New York City will be held later today. You may have read much about Swartz's life in the interim, including his work at a young age on Reddit and the RSS specification, his political activism, and the overzealous prosecution that may have contributed to his suicide. But you probably haven't heard the story WikiLeaks just outlined on its Twitter account. According to these tweets, Aaron Swartz had at one time aided Wikileaks in some indefinite way, had been in communication with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, and may have acted as a source for the anonymous information-gathering organization.

    The @Wikileaks Twitter account is one of two online outlets designated for official communication from WikiLeaks; the other is its home page. Here are its tweets on the organization's involvement with Aaron Swartz:

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  • Janus Kopfstein

    Jan 18, 2013

    Janus Kopfstein

    After Aaron: how an antiquated law enables the government's war on hackers, activists, and you

    Aaron Swartz - SOPA (Flickr)
    Aaron Swartz - SOPA (Flickr)

    Photo Credit: Daniel J. Sieradski

    One day back in the early 1970s, two young computer miscreants named Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak exploited a hole in AT&T’s phone system to prank call the Pope. The call — made using a homemade device called a “blue box” which made free calls by emulating the tones in AT&T’s switching system — was more than just a prank. It was part of a history of irreverent tinkering that would eventually lead to the creation of the Apple I, and the founding of what would later become the most valuable computer company on the planet.

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  • Jeff Blagdon

    Jan 17, 2013

    Jeff Blagdon

    Aaron Swartz's embattled prosecuting attorney releases first statement, says conduct was 'appropriate'

    aaron swartz
    aaron swartz

    US Attorney Carmen M. Ortiz is breaking the silence on her office’s prosecution of Aaron Swartz. After extending her sympathy to those affected by Swartz's death, Ortiz acknowledges that there was no evidence that the 25 year-old's efforts to mass-download public journal articles from the JSTOR repository was for personal financial gain. The prosecutor then disputes claims that her office was pursuing a hefty penalty for the hacker and open access advocate, saying "this office sought an appropriate sentence that matched the alleged conduct - a sentence that we would recommend to the judge of six months in a low security setting… his defense counsel would have been free to recommend a sentence of probation."

    Ortiz adds that "at no time did this office ever seek - or ever tell Mr. Swartz’s attorneys that it intended to seek - maximum penalties under the law" — a direct refutation of claims from the Swartz family and Attorney Elliot Peters that the Attorney's Office was prepared to throw the book at Swartz in order to coerce a plea agreement. Peters said of Heymann, "he was very intransigent. It was his philosophy that as you got closer to trial the plea offers only got worse. But the offer he was making was so unreasonable that having it get worse didn't concern me much."

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  • Adi Robertson

    Jan 16, 2013

    Adi Robertson

    Rep. Darrell Issa investigating whether prosecutors 'threw the book' at Aaron Swartz

    aaron swartz
    aaron swartz

    US Representative Darrell Issa (R-CA) has said he is investigating whether prosecutors were overzealous in going after Aaron Swartz, the online activist and Reddit co-founder who committed suicide last week and was set to stand trial for copying articles from the JSTOR database. Issa told The Huffington Post that while the investigation was ongoing, overprosecution may have been a problem for Swartz and others, even if actual crimes had been committed. "If someone is genuinely guilty of something and you bring them up on charges, that’s fine," he said. "But throw the book at them and find all kinds of charges and cobble them together so that they’ll plea to a 'lesser included' is a technique that I think can sometimes be inappropriately used." Swartz was facing up to 35 years in prison if he did not agree to a plea bargain.

    Issa hasn't always supported open access of the sort Swartz was pushing for with the JSTOR downloading tool: in 2012, he introduced a bill that would have stripped requirements to make publicly-funded research results freely accessible. Like many others, though, he expressed sympathy for Swartz. "I’m not condoning his hacking, but he’s certainly someone who worked very hard," Issa said. "Had he been a journalist and taken that same material that he gained from MIT, he would have been praised for it. It would have been like the Pentagon Papers." If Issa does find cause to believe Swartz was overprosecuted, he could push for a more formal investigation into the matter. He has previously spoken out against SOPA/PIPA and been a prominent opponent of the Justice Department under Obama, particularly during the "Fast and Furious" arms scandal.

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  • Amar Toor

    Jan 16, 2013

    Amar Toor

    Anonymous keeps Westboro Baptist Church from picketing Aaron Swartz funeral

    aaron swartz
    aaron swartz

    The Westboro Baptist Church had plans to stage a protest at the funeral of revered online activist Aaron Swartz, who committed suicide last week at the age of 26, but those plans were apparently derailed by Anonymous' threat to retaliate. As the Atlantic reports, Anonymous countered the church's planned picketing by organizing "Operation Angel," an online movement that called upon Swartz sympathizers to protect his funeral with a human shield. It's unclear if #opangel was directly responsible for the church's decision to stay away, or if the organization's leaders simply wanted to avoid the embarrassment they suffered after promising to picket outside Sandy Hook Elementary School. Either way, Westboro's protesters were nowhere to be found Tuesday, as Anonymous was quick to point out.

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