Hey Americans, when is enough enough?

AD Chaos said:
OT I guess, thought you might be interested in this:

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/ticket/white-house-answers-death-star-petition-no-171718726--politics.html

Irony is 'palpable' :lol:
Click to expand...

Ya I saw that, funny.

Back OT, I don't know what was in those MIT files, but it must have been important. People need to wake up. I know this sort of thing has been going on for a long time but "suiciding" people is for communist countries. I don't want that shit here in the USA, I don't care if it is for national security.
 
This is terrible, are we supposed to be unprapered against alien invasions without a Death Star? WAKE UP PEOPLE
 
Here is Harvard Professor Lawrence Lessig's response to his friends death. If you don;t know who Lawrence Lessig is, you should look him up - he is one of the rare people I truly have admiration for for a variety of his efforts and stances he takes on subjects I hold dear.

http://lessig.tumblr.com/post/40347463044/prosecutor-as-bully

For those unfamiliar with this case - the group that Aaron "stole" material from asked for the charges to be dropped (going as far as to release much of the "stolen" material to the public domain themselves), yet an US Attorney (politician) looking to make a name for herself , and the prosecutor under her, decided this was essentially at the level of a terrorist act. Not a single banker or Wall Street big wig has been held accountable (faced serious prison time) for anything that happened during the financial crisis, yet a 26 year old man who believed academic journals should be available to all faced upwards of 50 years in prison.

We live in a fucked up world where corporations can steal our countries blind and face absolutely no real fear of repercussion (as if millions of dollars in fines mean anything to companies capable of making those fine up in minutes, hours, or days), yet we threaten solitary citizens with essentially life in prison for thinking academic journals should be accessible to all. Stealing is stealing, no ifs ands or buts, but we have to have some level of gradation of seriousness or fairness on the punishment end of things.

As always, individual mileage may vary.
 
Genius Gone Insane said:
Ya I saw that, funny.

Back OT, I don't know what was in those MIT files, but it must have been important. People need to wake up. I know this sort of thing has been going on for a long time but "suiciding" people is for communist countries. I don't want that shit here in the USA, I don't care if it is for national security.
Click to expand...

Many of those files were published as open domain material in 2011 by the owners JSTORE who asked for the charges to be dropped as they had intended on publishing them all along.
 
Jind said:
For those unfamiliar with this case - the group that Aaron "stole" material from asked for the charges to be dropped (going as far as to release much of the "stolen" material to the public domain themselves), yet an US Attorney (politician) looking to make a name for herself decided this was essentially at the level of a terrorist act. Not a single banker or Wall Street big wig has been held accountable (faced serious prison time) for anything that happened during the financial crisis, yet a 26 year old man who believed academic journals should be available to all faced upwards of 50 years in prison.
Click to expand...
This pretty much sums it up although it's worth noting that he got into an MIT IT closet and hung an unauthorized computer on the network that was running a script that was bulk downloading articles from JSTOR which sells access to it's article database to colleges and institutions. It was a violation of the law however given that neither MIT or JSTOR wanted to press charges they should have dropped it or at the least dropped it down to some misdemeanor.
All of that said, I won't buy into the GGI "there is no way this guy killed himself theory" until there is some evidence that supports it. Brilliance and instability coexist quite often.
JSTOR owned the articles and the sole right to distribute them; It doesn't have anything to do with national security or the US government so there isn't an incentive beyond the prosecutor making her career. It's just a bunch of academic articles available on campus's across the country/world.
 
Yeah I don't believe that it was an assasin job. I'm all for the idea, but there was a court date planned, that shoots the entire idea. A court date means they were planning on dick smashing his forehead for a while and then sending him to the lockers. Why would they want to kill him off when that would only lend power and credibility to his cause? If instead he gets locked up and humiliated throughout the public media it works to their favor twice. Now there is going to be nothing but sympathy stories published. Very sad though.
 
Jind said:
Many of those files were published as open domain material in 2011 by the owners JSTORE who asked for the charges to be dropped as they had intended on publishing them all along.
Click to expand...

Why many files? Why not all files? Swartz was a selfless American hero with nothing to lose. Who knows what he would have testified. How common is it for people to waste themselves prior to testifying? This whole thing reeks. You are free to disagree, of course.

I find myself today asking what is freedom? And at what expense must it be preserved?

PS: there is more to this story. Out of my own personal greed and desire for self-preservation I am leaving it out (I intend to lead a long, happy life -- please never forget that). Scary shit. But let it be said that I am a true American at heart. I love my country and I would never do anything to hurt anyone. All I ask is for some more honesty and a little less greed from our leaders. And I wish people would open their eyes a bit and see the reality of what is happening. The worst part is that what is happening is irreversible. Dark, dark times are ahead for us.

I am done posting rubbish.
 
I don't know the guy nor the story, how valid are the actions he has taken ? I mean it's good and all but newspapers need sales to pay salaries to their employees as well, and free information already exists on internet. Not trying to judge the guy but I found that part a little Anonymous-like. Did I miss something ?
 
egan. said:
This pretty much sums it up although it's worth noting that he got into an MIT IT closet and hung an unauthorized computer on the network that was running a script that was bulk downloading articles from JSTOR which sells access to it's article database to colleges and institutions. It was a violation of the law however given that neither MIT or JSTOR wanted to press charges they should have dropped it or at the least dropped it down to some misdemeanor.
All of that said, I won't buy into the GGI "there is no way this guy killed himself theory" until there is some evidence that supports it. Brilliance and instability coexist quite often.
JSTOR owned the articles and the sole right to distribute them; It doesn't have anything to do with national security or the US government so there isn't an incentive beyond the prosecutor making her career. It's just a bunch of academic articles available on campus's across the country/world.
Click to expand...

From what I have read MIT was not on board with JSTORE when JSTORE asked for the charges to be dropped, they continued down the path of asking for charges to be filed. Lawrence Lessig makes note of it in his blog post linked above.
 
By the way - I'm also not in the camp that thinks their is some cover-up for a homicide here - he killed himself in the face of both being branded a felon and the probability of a large portion of his life existing behind bars. Aaron had been willing to admit wrong doing, but he was unwilling to plead guilty as a "felon". This was not a case where things were being reduced in seriousness as it went on, it went from 4 charges to start with to at least 13 felony charges by the time it was to go to trial. The US Attorney and prosecutor were stacking the deck in favor of a lengthy prison sentence as it's these types of cases with national attention that make careers. Those two wanted this to go to trial, not to kill him off before the career building benefits of a very public prosecution of a "cyber terrorist" as they painted him.

As noted above - you kill the your enemy before he reveals your secrets, not after the fact. After the fact you try to use him as an example of the ramifications of doing the bad deed. As they did when seeking over 50 years in prison over academic journals.
 
Man, people on this forum are all jocked up on conspiracy theories. Occam's razor, guys. He was going on trial for stealing a bunch of shit (which you have to PAY FOR because that's the way the world works, kids) and was probably going to a federal prison, so he killed himself. Big deal.

Intellectual property rights fucking matter, and when you violate them, you pay a penalty. I don't know the intricacies of this specific case- perhaps it should have been dropped- but saying this kid is a hero for stealing things that eeeeveryone else has to pay for is unbelievable. Without money, JSTOR wouldn't exist. Without JSTOR, I couldn't have done my undergraduate thesis. Et cetera.
 
Always sad when something like this happens. I heard he has been struggling with years of depression. This may have put him over the edge.

I really agree with Lessig's view on several topics. He hit the nail on the head with this one.
 
He's Dead said:
Man, people on this forum are all jocked up on conspiracy theories. Occam's razor, guys. He was going on trial for stealing a bunch of shit (which you have to PAY FOR because that's the way the world works, kids) and was probably going to a federal prison, so he killed himself. Big deal.

Intellectual property rights fucking matter, and when you violate them, you pay a penalty. I don't know the intricacies of this specific case- perhaps it should have been dropped- but saying this kid is a hero for stealing things that eeeeveryone else has to pay for is unbelievable. Without money, JSTOR wouldn't exist. With JSTOR, I couldn't have done my undergraduate thesis. Et cetera.
Click to expand...

For someone who's done an undergraduate thesis you're pretty shit at actually reading the thread...

Yes he stole intellectual property. But the owner of that property wanted the charges dropped.
Instead he was marked as a "terrorist" (god I am SICK of that word getting thrown around everywhere!) and was facing a 50 year prison sentence.
 
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