Aaron Swartz Commits Suicide

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Posted by Soulskill on Saturday January 12, 2013 @01:26AM from the rest-in-peace dept.

maijc writes "Computer activist Aaron Swartz committed suicide yesterday in New York City. He was 26 years old. Swartz was 'indicted in July 2011 by a federal grand jury for allegedly mass downloading documents from the JSTOR online journal archive with the intent to distribute them.' He is best known for co-authoring the widely-used RSS 1.0 specification when he was 14, and as one of the early co-owners of Reddit."

15 of 589 comments (clear)

Have some shame by benjfowler · 2013-01-12 01:39 · Score: 5, Insightful

A young man took his own life. And so far, I'm only reading sick jokes and flamebait. This isn't Digg.
The first posters to this discussion should take a long, hard look at themselves.
1. Re:Have some shame by Anonymous Coward · 2013-01-12 01:53 · Score: 5, Interesting
  
  Imagine yourself stuck in a case where you are facing 30+ years for putting up documents online, then the organization saying "Haha! Nevermind, we were going to put everything out in public domain anyway!" (typical PR?) and still be trapped in it.
2. Re:Have some shame by Grax · 2013-01-12 02:01 · Score: 5, Interesting
  
  Very said. I met him once at an ArsDigita event when he was around 14. I was surprised to find that the posts I had been reading came from someone so young. He was a very smart guy and he made a lot of waves. I am sad to see him go.
  
  --
  Coding Blog
3. Re:Have some shame by Anonymous Coward · 2013-01-12 06:16 · Score: 5, Interesting
  
  Imagine yourself stuck in a case where you are facing 30+ years
  
  I don't fucking need to "imagine" it, you fucking pussy.
  I have BEEN in a similar situation.
  I once faced 16 years' imprisonment for some trumped-up charges that
  might have stuck if I had gone to trial. So like most other people who get
  in trouble in the United States on the federal level, I copped a plea with the
  agreement that my sentence would be limited to far less prison time.
  In the end I served 30 months in federal prison. It was easy time, and I was
  in a medium security facility. I cannot say it was pleasant, but it was not even
  close to being a scenario in which I could have been the victim of homosexual rape
  or any of the other awful things idiots on Slashdot speculate about when they imagine
  prison. The truth is that I had a lot of time to relax, I read many excellent books, and
  I ate quite well ( food in fed prisons is actually pretty damned good, it is the food in
  state prisons which sucks ).
  So, what if I had responded to the prosecutor's BULLSHIT attempts to scare me
  and killed myself ? I'd be dead. Instead, today I am going to enjoy a nice motorcycle
  ride and give my cat a lot of love, and eat a wonderful meal later on. Life has ups
  and downs, and there WILL be dark days for all of us, sooner or later. If you let
  a dark day push you into committing suicide, you will have failed yourself.
  Instead of being dead, I can honestly say that prison was a growth experience
  for me and that I am today happier than I have ever been.
  NEVER EVER GIVE UP, no matter what some bastard is doing to you.
  If my story is not powerful enough for you, look up the story of Primo Levi.
  That story will be enough to leave a permanent imprint on your brain, I
  assure you.
The smoking gun by Anonymous Coward · 2013-01-12 01:48 · Score: 5, Insightful

"So I hope you’ll forgive me for not doing more. And hey, it could be worse. At least I have decent health insurance."
- http://www.aaronsw.com/weblog/verysick
Re:Why is this not major news on Reddit? by ohnocitizen · 2013-01-12 01:55 · Score: 5, Informative

Incorrect: Reddit Cofounder RIP. Front page. 1294 votes and climbing. Submitted 4 hours ago. 84 comments vs the 24 here.
Someone's got their priorities all wrong by Anonymous Coward · 2013-01-12 01:56 · Score: 5, Insightful
- Spread knowledge: 30+ years in prison.
- Kill a person: 10 years in prison.
- Rape a woman: I don't even know how much.
- Be a banker and fuck people's lives by investing their well-earned money into bad assets: Earn a bonus.
If this doesn't get you enraged about the larger problem at hand, I don't know what will.
1. Re:Someone's got their priorities all wrong by Desler · 2013-01-12 02:16 · Score: 5, Informative
  
  Kill a person: 10 years in prison.
  No, it's more like:
  First-degree murder: Manadatory death sentence or life-imprisonment
  Second-degree murder: Manadatory minimum 10-years to life inprisonment.
Re:He Is Free Now by Anonymous Coward · 2013-01-12 01:57 · Score: 5, Insightful

He chose to take his own life. It was his decision. I don't agree with it, and I don't endorse it as a reasonable choice, but it was his decision.
There is an endless supply of "we want everything to be free and open! don't lock us in! what if I want to ABC? who's to say I can't XYZ?" Are we not hypocrites to say he cannot be free with his own life?
The world lost something of value with his passing. It was his choice to deprive the world of what he gave it. It is sad, and it is hard, but it is done.
RIP by Marcion · 2013-01-12 02:16 · Score: 5, Insightful

"The light that burns twice as bright, burns half as long. And you have burned so very, very brightly." (Bladerunner)

--
My little Linux and tech blog
Re:sad day, and sad reality by Anonymous Coward · 2013-01-12 02:21 · Score: 5, Funny

We ARE just animals. What are you, a sentient rock?
Re:He Is Free Now by fredprado · 2013-01-12 03:10 · Score: 5, Insightful

The idea of freedom or choice is irrelevant when there is not someone to choose then nothing to choose from. If the person is dead he is neither free or restrained, he simply isn't.
C. Doctorow on A. Swartz by Organic+Brain+Damage · 2013-01-12 03:16 · Score: 5, Informative

This was written by someone who knew Mr. Swartz. http://boingboing.net/2013/01/12/rip-aaron-swartz.html
Re:He Is Free Now by gomiam · 2013-01-12 04:33 · Score: 5, Insightful

Unless you can invent a way for everything to be free (as in beer), which is another way of saying you think things should appear out of thin air, Swartz's actions amount to reducing the collection of freedoms available of everyone in the entire scientific journal ecosystem.
We have many intellectual works that predate copyright, as probably already know. And you can't conflate ideas with physical objects because there is no shortage of "idea copies": they don't disappear from my mind when you make a copy, so yes, they basically appear out of thin air. Even the originals often do because they appear when you are working on something else.

Hence we are more free under the current copyright system than we would be if people had no way of earning a living under current copyright law.
Non sequitur, sorry. The current copyright system restricts the freedom of the majority for no proven reason in order to provide monetary gain to a minority, and authors are not part of that minority in most cases either. So we have a system that doesn't benefit the general public and benefits very few of the producers. That looks like a net loss of freedom to me.
Re:I understand by UnknownSoldier · 2013-01-12 06:04 · Score: 5, Insightful

> I'd rather have the old slashdot with its trolls than the current bleh.
I would rather NOT go back to Ogg, Natalie Portman with hot gritz, and goatse Thank-You-Very-Much.
IF the /. community jumped the shark years ago we have no one but ourselves to blame.
A community is what you put into it. Not only what you get out of it.