Internet freedom activist Aaron Swartz hounded to death

This video about the USA is called Reddit co-founder Aaron Swartz commits suicide in midst of controversial trial.

From daily The Morning Star in Britain:

Internet activist hounded to death by US government

Sunday 13 January 2013

Internet freedom activist Aaron Swartz killed himself late on Friday having been hounded by US prosecutors for sharing copyrighted material on the internet.

The Reddit website co-founder and RSS protocols coder (pictured) faced up to 30 years in prison for “stealing” millions of files from academic journals from electronic archive Jstor by accessing an MIT university computer.

His family, who announced the news at the weekend, said the death was “the product of a criminal justice system rife with intimidation and prosecutorial overreach.

“Decisions made by officials in the Massachusetts US Attorney’s office and at MIT contributed to his death.”

Mr Swartz was also instrumental in mobilising opposition to Coica in 2010, a precursor to current laws limiting internet freedom.

Tributes poured in to 26-year-old, including from world-wide-web inventor Tim Berners-Lee who said: “Parents all, we have lost a child. Let us weep.”

Aaron Swartz’s family condemns MIT and US government after his death (guardian.co.uk)
Aaron Swartz: Family of activist and Reddit co-founder blame prosecutors for his death (metro.co.uk)
Tech Prodigy and Internet Activist Aaron Swartz Commits Suicide (business.time.com)
Anger at Suicide of Internet Activist Aaron Swartz Grows (themoderatevoice.com)
Death of internet activist Aaron Swartz prompts flood of Twitter tributes (guardian.co.uk)
Aaron Swartz obituary (guardian.co.uk)
Technology’s Greatest Minds Say Goodbye to Aaron Swartz (mashable.com)
Web activist Aaron Swartz dies at age 26 (boston.com)

14 thoughts on “Internet freedom activist Aaron Swartz hounded to death”

This is terrible.
So many courageous whistleblowers, protestors and activists seem to have no protection against the vested interests and systems they are trying to alert the world to…
They literally take their life in their hands.
It’s terribly worrying for us all, as well as being an absolute tragedy for them and for us.

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petrel41 on January 15, 2013 at 8:25 am said:

Very correct, Valerie.

Apparently, the judiciary wanted to make an intimidating example of Aaron; in order to undermine Internet freedom to help the paywall monopolists like Rupert Murdoch.

And Aaron sadly came to the conclusion that decades in jail would be worse than no life at all.

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- petrel41 on January 15, 2013 at 8:28 am said:
  
  What an injustice that Rupert Murdoch has so far not even paid a one cent fine for his hacking of the phones of a murdered girl and of many others, while collecting paywall profits; while Aaron Swartz was hounded to death.
  
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I learned something new today. Thanks!

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petrel41 on January 15, 2013 at 8:16 am said:

You are welcome 🙂

I hope next time, it will be better news than about someone hounded to death for fighting for Internet freedom. I hope this won’t happen to others.

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