Aaron Swartz's Estate Seeks Release of Documents

theodp writes "The Boston Globe reports that the estate of Aaron Swartz filed a motion in federal court in Boston Friday to allow the release of documents in the case that has generated national controversy over the U.S. attorney's aggressive pursuit of a stiff sentence. The Court filing (PDF) suggests that the U.S. attorney's office is still up for jerking Aaron around a little posthumously, seeking what his lawyers termed overbroad redactions, including names and titles that are already publicly known. Swartz's family also seeks the return of his seized property (PDF). Last week, Swartz's girlfriend accused MIT of dragging its feet on investigating his suicide. Meanwhile, Slate's Justin Peters asks if the Justice Department learned anything from the Aaron Swartz case, noting that Matthew Keys, who faces 25 years in prison for crimes that include aiding-and-abetting the display of humorously false content, could replace Swartz as the poster boy for prosecutorial overreach."

Comments

Political attack

[roman_mir]

As I said in the previous story about CISPA, the relationship between you and your government is not what you were brought up to believe it is.

Aaron Swartz wasn't attacked because of that nonsense copyright infringement charge, he was attacked because he was very instrumental in the fight against SOPA.

Bradley Manning was not attacked just because of the leaks of some documents, governments leak selective documents all the time. He was attacked because he showed part of the true face, part of the true cost to the military invasion - the US government is involved in destroying individuals, freedoms of individuals around the world.

These people are political dissidents in USA, the system is set to destroy them because they attacked the system.

Re:Political attack

[dkleinsc]

That's also why the authorities don't really mind when decorated war veterans are killed by police at political protests (as happened in Oakland a couple of years ago). They tend to be cheering when cops beat and pepper-spray and arrest people who's sole crime is standing on a sidewalk holding a sign.

You should also mention Julian Assange, who has never stepped foot in the United States and has never been subject to its laws. The reason that Assange isn't going to Sweden to face the "sex-by-surprise" charges is that he could not get a guarantee that the Swedes would not immediately turn him over to the US, and he also couldn't get a guarantee from the US that he would receive anything remotely similar to a fair trial.

And I should mention that roman_mir and I have very different political leanings. But we can both agree that this kind of thing is wrong and illegal.

Re:Political attack

[Hatta]

You should also mention Julian Assange, who has never stepped foot in the United States and has never been subject to its laws.

FWIW, he was on the Colbert Report (filmed in NYC) in 2010.

Re:Political attack

[stenvar]

You should also mention Julian Assange, who has never stepped foot in the United States and has never been subject to its laws. The reason that Assange isn't going to Sweden to face the "sex-by-surprise" charges is that he could not get a guarantee that the Swedes would not immediately turn him over to the US, and he also couldn't get a guarantee from the US that he would receive anything remotely similar to a fair trial.

What trial? Assange hasn't even been indicted or charged in the US.

But indeed: in principle, you can in fact violate the laws of a country you have never set foot in. Many countries have such laws, not just the US.

Re:Political attack

[roman_mir]

Put down the crack pipe

- never.

Manning wanted to embarrass the United States and he made that very clear in his statement in his court martial.

- wrong, either you are misinformed or lying on purpose.

full transcript

excerpts:

Up to this point,during the deployment, I had issues I struggled with and difficulty at work. Of the documents release, the cables were the only one I was not absolutely certain couldn't harm the United States. I conducted research on the cables published on the Net Centric Diplomacy, as well as how Department of State cables worked in general.

...

The more I read the cables, the more I came to the conclusion that this was the type of information that should become public. I once read a and used a quote on open diplomacy written after the First World War and how the world would be a better place if states would avoid making secret pacts and deals with and against each other.

I thought these cables were a prime example of a need for a more open diplomacy. Given all of the Department of State cables that I read, the fact that most of the cables were unclassified, and that all the cables have a SIPDIS caption.

...

I did not see anything in the 15-6 report or its annexes that gave away sensitive information. Rather, the investigation and its conclusions were and what those involved should have done, and how to avoid an event like this from occurring again.

...

The only place that you could possibly be referring to would be this part:

I believe that the public release of these cables would not damage the United States, however, I did believe that the cables might be embarrassing, since they represented very honest opinions and statements behind the backs of other nations and organizations.
In many ways these cables are a catalogue of cliques and gossip. I believed exposing this information might make some within the Department of State and other government entities unhappy. On 22 March 2010, I began downloading a copy of the SIPDIS cables using the program Wget, described above.

Yes, releasing very honest opinions behind the backs might be embarrassing to some organisations, you are however implying that it was his motive, which is false or a lie. It was not his motive, his motive was to ensure that the public knew what was done in its name:

The more I read, the more I was fascinated with the way that we dealt with other nations and organizations. I also began to think the documented backdoor deals and seemingly criminal activity that didn't seem characteristic of the de facto leader of the free world.

...

It detailed corruption within the cabinet of al-Maliki's government and the financial impact of his corruption on the Iraqi people. After discovering this discrepancy between the Federal Police's report and the interpreter's transcript, I forwarded this discovery to the top OIC and the battle NCOIC. The top OIC and the overhearing battle captain informed me that they didn't need or want to know this information anymore. They told me to quote "drop it" unquote and to just assist them and the Federal Police in finding out, where more of these print shops creating quote "anti-Iraqi literature" unquote.

I couldn't believe what I heard and I returned to the T-SCIF and complained to the other analysts and my section NCOIC about what happened. Some were sympathetic, but no one wanted to do anything about it.

Re:Political attack

[anagama]

There is no evidence Al Alwaki gave aid or comfort. None at all. There is conjecture and accusation, but only a total idiot would consider that to be "evidence". Here's an example:

I accuse you of being a child molester.

There. You are a child molester because I accused you of it. QED.

As for the son, the Obama administration's position was that he should have had a better dad. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/10/24/robert-gibbs-anwar-al-awlaki_n_2012438.html

Re:Political attack

[The Snowman]

If you think political dissidents in this country are routinely destroyed than you are as naive as can be.

Perhaps you should read up on U.S. history. We have a long history of doing just that. Look as far back as Reconstruction, the civil rights movements in the 1960s, and other figures such as Malcolm X. I think our government has learned from these and are far more subtle now, though.

Governments have been corrupt for thousands of years, as long as we have had governments. Many other governments in this world are corrupt as well: what makes the U.S. so special? Absolute power corrupts absolutely. So the most powerful nation on the planet with regards to military and economy is somehow the land of peace and love? Where the government does not try to keep its hegemony on world influence? The diplomatic cable leaks serve only to prove that the U.S. government is corrupt and bends rules to get its way.

I am no conspiracy theorist. I just believe in human nature: people want more power and influence than the others around them. Put 535 people like that into Congress, another 2+cabinet into the White House, let them appoint their lackies to government jobs, what is going to happen? Shit like Swartz's case. This is why we need stronger restrictions on what government can and cannot do, and it has to be enshrined in the U.S. Constitution. Finally, we need someone willing to enforce those restrictions. I vote for Batman: his existence is just as likely as our government restricting its own power.

Re:Political attack

[sjames]

I most certainly can and do blame the prosecutor. Are you claiming the law put a gun to his head and removed all prosecutorial discretion? It is the prosecutor's responsibility to show such discretion at all times in service of justice.

Re:Investigation....?

[udachny]

Comments that draw attention to the political angle of this story (and it's all political) are moded as "overrated", there are people who don't like this simple truth: the government is attacking dissidents, Aaron Swartz, Bradley Manning are dissidents. There are many others as well.

Here is an excerpt FTFA

The estate of Aaron Swartz, the Internet activist who was charged with hacking by the federal government and later committed suicide

- see, the very first sentence. What is the tone of TFA?

1. Aaron was an Internet hacker.
2. He committed suicide.

That's the first sentence. That's the tone. That's the soundbite.

Here is what is not the tone and it should be:

1. Aaron was standing up against illegal grab of power by Congress.

2. Aaron was attacked by the government, lost all of his money that he made from his businesses in that legal battle and was facing what could amount to life in prison (really, 30 years is life AFAIC) and that's what gave him this depression. He was not paranoid, they were after him, he became the enemy of the state.

Justice is not responsible for Swartz's suicide

[Anonymous Coward]

If it were, then it would be responsible for any suicide for someone with an impending prosecution.

Justice is not responsible for Swartz illegally downloading millions of documents in the JSTOR case, nor for his similar behavior two years prior in the PACER case. His reaction in the former case is still posted:

Wanted by the FBI

I got my FBI file today. (Request yours!) As I hoped, it’s truly delightful.

Re:Justice is not responsible for Swartz's suicide

[oh_my_080980980]

The downloads were not illegal. Nice one jackass. He exceeded the limit of article he could download. Exceeding the limit was not illegal.

the rich don't like that

[mdw2]

Sadly the only lesson that the DOJ seems to want to teach anyone is "don't fuck with the rich"

Re:Keys will take a plea deal

[oh_my_080980980]

Because it wasn't over-reach by the government? Hid suicide does not mean the government wasn't over zealous.

Re:Investigation....?

[udachny]

Also, being attacked by the government did NOT 'give him depression'.

- so are you saying that a guy, who spent his savings (a million or so) in court because government wouldn't stop with false claims, which by the way had no reason to be brought up even. JSTOR didn't want to press charges, the company that the documents were lifted off.

He was forced into poverty and he was facing something that would amount to life in prison (30 years) in the eyes of a 26 year old.

Yes, I am not a doctor, but I would have been depressed under such circumstances as well.

Re:Investigation....?

[NatasRevol]

Apparently, you don't know the facts of the case.

He was diagnosed with depression before any of this ever happened.

Thus, it was NOT the government who caused his depression.

Documents

[Sigvatr]

Uh, the last time documents related to this case were released didn't turn out so good.

Re:Investigation....?

[udachny]

Manning a soldier. Vastly different worlds. Swartz acted honorably. Manning dishonored himself and his uniform.

- no, the uniform that he wore was already dishonored by the actions of the organization that issued it and the organization that controlled the organization that issued it. Manning finally returned some semblance of honor to his uniform by doing what he swore to do: protect and defend the Constitution. Not the organization that issued his uniform. Not the organization that controls the organization that issued his uniform. Both of those have violated the conditions and the oath that they were supposed to uphold.

They are similar situations, both cases have to do with people fighting the system, where the system is in the wrong in all of these cases and the system then crushed the people fighting it.

Re:Investigation....?

[udachny]

No he did not, he finally returned some honor to his uniform by showing that there are still people that actually take the oath to defend and protect the Constitution seriously as opposed to those, who only pretend that they are there to do it.

Re:Investigation....?

[CRCulver]

For every Rosa Parks, there are thousands of raped victims that no one ever pays attention to. Without those thousands of victims, Rosa would have been just an uppity old N****r broad, who didn't know her place. BECAUSE OF those victims, Ms Rosa Parks earned her place in history.

Actually, Rosa Parks earned her place in history with the help of a concentrated effort by the NAACP in Montgomery to bust the city's discrimination. American school textbooks tend to present her as a solitary hero because of an institutionalized disapproval of collective civil rights struggles, but in fact she was working in tandem with a number of other activists. Herbert R. Kohl's Should We Burn Babar? , which critiques US elementary school teaching, dedicates an entire chapter to the Rosa Parks myth and reality.

Re:Keys will take a plea deal

[moeinvt]

What "plea deal" was the government offering to Aaron Swartz? It's my understanding that they would not accept anything less than a lengthy prison term.

Re:Investigation....?

[moeinvt]

You think he leaked those documents for the sake of personal fame?

The government and military SHOULD be embarrassed for their egregious war crimes and blatant misrepresentation of facts to the American people. I think this leak was hugely significant.
We should give Manning a medal and prosecute the war criminals, starting with Cheney and Bush.

Re:Keys will take a plea deal

[sjames]

If so, it's an unethical show. Consider:

I walk in to a liquor store with a loaded AK-47 and say "please give me all of your money". Naturally, the shop owner complies. Later, in court if I say the AK was 'just for show' and I thought the guy was just generous, do we all have a laugh and go home or am I still on trial for armed robbery?

In other words, if they're threatening him with 30 years to induce him to plead guilty and take a deal, it is NOT just for show, it is a very real threat.

Re:Investigation....?

[sjames]

According to the egg shell skull doctrine, you are responsible even if your victim was unusually vulnerable.

Re:Investigation....?

[nbauman]

Good point.

Rosa Parks was able to organize effectively because of a coordinated radical movement in the U.S., which taught her how to organize. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Highlander_Research_and_Education_Center

That included a lot of socialists, Communists and union organizers. http://vault.fbi.gov/Highlander%20Folk%20School Sometimes the only newspaper that would cover their work was the Daily Worker.