First Portions of Aaron Swartz's Secret Service File Released

Despite attempts by MIT and JSTOR to block the release of files pertaining the Aaron Swartz investigation, the court has ordered the release of documents not referencing MIT or JSTOR. There are approximately 14,500 pages of documents that will be released over the coming six months, after having information that could lead to harm against MIT or JSTOR employees redacted. Wired has the full story, and the author uploaded the first hundred pages of files. The first batch reveals that the Feds had indeed been looking into Swartz since the publication of his 2008 'Guerilla Open Access Manifesto,' several years before being indicted for copying documents from JSTOR.

Comments

Released?

[MobSwatter]

We already know based upon Snowden that anything that will incriminate the U.S. government will be classified (Blacked out). It's clear on the Swartz case that they are so bent on making the people stupid that they are willing kill the smart ones that want to share knowledge. Not really much more to explore on the subject, other than a choice in country that is a bit more worthy of their word, and rule of law.

Re:Released?

[buchner.johannes]

The assessment that people at MIT and JSTOR would be personally attacked and harassed by internet vigilante is realistic. You can just read the Slashdot articles calling for the hanging of everybody involved.

But bringing more suffering does not help Aaron. We need to create protections against the psychological, financial and social consequences of prosecutions that go on for years. People lose their jobs, sanity and social status due to being under investigation.

Re:Released?

[drinkypoo]

The only person who participated in his death was Aaron Schwartz. He wasn't harassed. He was arrested for unlawful actions.

He was needlessly imprisoned as punishment for taking actions which really shouldn't even have been illegal. That's not just harassment, it's also punishment before a finding of guilt.

Re: Released?

[dnadoc]

It's really callous to ruin somebody's life with immoral abuse of the legal system, over an unjust law, then blame the victim for his own suicide, because you think it didn't count as harassment.

Aaron's dad was right- the government murdered Aaron.

Re:Released?

[Creepy]

Swartz published PUBLIC DOMAIN documents on the internet that non-college students had to pay 10 cents a page for a copy. He was charged with computer fraud, unlawfully obtaining information from a protected computer and recklessly damaging a protected computer, all provisions of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, many of which were meant to protect ATM transactions before there was internet. If you haven't read this extremely over-broad law, which depending on interpretation makes the internet illegal (accessing any site without permission of the owner is illegal and a felony). In the aftermath, Aaron's law was proposed to eliminate terms of service from the CFAA, which is what all of these charges were based on.

For that he was looking at 35 years in prison, forfeit of assets, and a 1 million dollar fine. To put that in perspective, he was looking at spending over half of his life in prison and could be 61 by release (without parole) and completely broke. That was for making free knowledge available to the public. I can understand being depressed and possibly suicidal faced with those charges and the very likely possibility of losing in court.

14500 pages?

[c0lo]

What the hell? How much of 14500 pages could have been relevant to the trial?
Are you guys competing with Stasi?

Re:14500 pages?

[RotateLeftByte]

I suspect there will be page after page of

suspect woke up at 06:55. Alarm played I'm Free by the Who
suspect entered bathroom at 06:56
suspect farted
suspect got dressed Jeans (faded levi's) and white T shirt at 07:04
suspect descended stairs at 07:05 and yawned
suspect said good morning to

etc etc etc

He must have been a 'very naughty boy' (with homage to Monty Python) to have made the feds take that level of interest in him. It is a pity that in doing do, they took their eyes off of other even badder people in the Boston Area.
joking apart and honestly,
I can't see what was so serious/life threatening/treasonable that caused the Feds to take that level on interest in him. However, I do suspect that having done so, they saw that this pretty innocious charge of copying was the foot in the door and they needed to show the bosses in DC that there was some return on their investment so they put the squeeze on the DA to throw the book at him.
no proof but why else would she keep saying we are going to press for the maximum sentence?
If found guilty, he could well have spent more time in jail than a murderer. How can his crime be regarded as being more serious than that? The US Justice is IMHO anything but Just.

Re:14500 pages?

[Anonymous Coward]

The US does not have a justice system. It has a legal system. Wherever you see the term "justice" applied, you can infer it to mean, "Whatever the government wants."

Re:14500 pages?

[GameboyRMH]

Actually I think they are.

Read the Guerilla Open Access Manifesto. This is what got the feds' attention on Swartz. Now what in there could possibly have anything to do with state security?

Why were the feds interested in someone because they said these things? I can only come up with three possibilities, and none of them are good:

1. They are policing IP issues
2. They are acting as rent-a-cops to protect the profits of certain corporations, on taxpayer money (this is subtly different than #1)
3. They simply see anyone not happy with the increasing secrecy and private ownership of the world as a potential security threat who should be crushed with the full weight of the legal system at the first opportunity, to cripple any of their future endeavors.

Missing info from the summary

[mutube]

It was in an 86pt font.

The only way to get the NSA off your back

[Required Snark]

is to die.

Re:Help an uneducated

[Trepidity]

The Computer Fraud and Abuse Act treats both "unauthorized access" and "exceeding authorized access" as essentially equivalent. The second case is where you had an account but used it in unauthorized ways. This has some obvious vagueness and overreach problems. Did the CFAA drafters really mean to criminalize ToS violations, for example?

Here [pdf] is a proposed amendment to the law from law professor Orin Kerr.

Feds had good reason to be investigating

[mysidia]

The first batch reveals that the Feds had indeed been looking into Swartz since the publication of his 2008 'Guerilla Open Access Manifesto,'

While I appreciate his point of view. He wrote a manifesto specifically desiring to persuade people to break the law, and implying that he had.

It's impressive and scary that the feds discovered and interpreted this manifesto --- I would of thought it beyond their level of intelligence to be capable of understanding it.

But it's not surprising or wrong, that he was to be investigated for publishing something so explicitly begging people to break the law and essentially confessing to copyright breaking.

Expressing such a message is sure to get you extra scrutiny -- that's the way the world works.

Everything you do after publishing such a document, and anyone anybody can find you've done in the past -- better be on the up-and-up, or you risk arrest.

And you better be prepared to be found guilty, too; maybe, even if the charges were bogus and contrived by our dark overlords to suppress the throes of rebellion.

Re:Nobody cares about this suicidal loser

[ebno-10db]

Really tired of all the Aaron Swartz stories, it got old months ago.

Really tired of some people whining about all the Aaron Swartz stories. If you're not interested, don't read them. I am interested because this is an important ongoing story, and this article does contain new information.

Re:Help an uneducated

[Nyder]

The Computer Fraud and Abuse Act treats both "unauthorized access" and "exceeding authorized access" as essentially equivalent. ...

Isn't that what the NSA has done to us?

Re:Help an uneducated

[stenvar]

Did the CFAA drafters really mean to criminalize ToS violations, for example?

I don't see how that is relevant here. Swartz evaded attempts to remove him from the network and he installed hardware on a physical network on private property. Neither of those is a ToS violation, it's gaining access illegally. The copying itself also wasn't just a ToS violation, it was a criminal copyright violation (but he wasn't even charged with that AFAIK).

CFAA is far too vague and far too expansive. But Swartz would have run afoul of pretty much any computer fraud statute.

Stephen Heymann & Carmen Ortiz

[runeghost]

Why are these two still employed by the U.S. Government? Ortiz and Hyemann need to pay for their misconduct in this case, preferably by being disbarred for life, and at the least with their careers as U.S. Attorneys. That they are allowed to continue working for the so-called United States Department of Justice is one more indictation of the disfunction and failure of America's legal system.

Re:MIT/JSTOR redactions == cowardice

[Weezul]

Agreed. I think people know that Prosecutors Stephen Heymann and Carmen Ortiz are the ones who need to pay for Aaron Swartz death by losing their jobs. Any MIT and JSTOR employees involved should be penalized by people remembering them and obstructing their promotion within those organizations, but tempers have cooled enough that they shouldn't be getting death threats now.

In any case, these documents will help focus anger back on Heymann and Ortiz. Example :

Prosecutor Stephen Heymann Compared Aaron Swartz To Rapist