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Worldwide Aaron Swartz Day Memorial Hackathons This Weekend
New submitter sterlingcrispin writes: There are hackathons taking place all over the world in memory of Aaron Swartz this weekend, November 8th and 9th. The goal is to "bring together the varied communities that Aaron touched to figure out how the important problems of the world connect, and to share the load of working on those problems." If you are interested in open access, privacy, free speech, transparency, citizen activism, human rights, and information ethics please attend, promote this event, and contribute to its growth.
I'm organizing the Los Angeles meet up and would love to see you there! Here are the other cities hosting one.
I'm organizing the Los Angeles meet up and would love to see you there! Here are the other cities hosting one.
He stole documents that were supposed to be public domain that the government had put behind a paywall and made them public. He used MIT's license and free-to-the-public internet to do this.
He got caught because he put his downloader in one of their closets. None of this should have been technically illegal, and even MIT didn't want to prosecute, but the government decided they didn't like him.
Peter predicted that you would "deliberately forget" creation 2000 years ago...
FACT: Downloading JSTOR articles was one minor footnote among the many amazing projects Aaron was working on at the time. From the fall of 2010 until his death in 2013, Aaronâ(TM)s projects included, but were not limited to: SecureDrop, the leak-protecting technology for journalists now implemented by outlets ranging from The New Yorker to Forbes to The Guardian; the SOPA/PIPA fight, The Flaming Sword of Justice (now The Good Fight), a podcast about activism which went on to reach the top of the iTunes charts; VictoryKit, an online campaigning toolset still mobilizing activists around the world; and co-founding Demand Progress. FACT: Aaron implemented a piece of software that downloaded articles from the JSTOR website faster than JSTOR originally intended. Aaronâ(TM)s software downloaded articles from the JSTOR website to Aaronâ(TM)s laptop, just like a live person would have downloaded them, but without his having to sit there and click through each of the steps manually. Source: Alex Stamos, http://unhandled.com/2013/01/1... FACT: Aaron did not hack into any of MITâ(TM)s computers. The CFAA requires that a person gain access to a computer that they werenâ(TM)t authorized to access. Aaron was obviously authorized to access his own laptop. FACT: Aaron did not hack into MITâ(TM)s network. Aaron connected his laptop to MITâ(TM)s open network by walking into an open computer closet on MITs open campus and simply plugging into an unused ethernet port. Source: Alex Stamos, http://unhandled.com/2013/01/1... FACT: Aaron was a âoeFellowâ at the Harvard University Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics at the time. Aaron was exactly the type of academic researcher that MIT meant to have downloading articles from the JSTOR database over its open network. Aaronâ(TM)s past research in this regard was the basis of a Stanford Law Review Article where he found troubling connections between corporations and their funding of legal research. Source: Stanford Law Review http://www.stanfordlawreview.o... FACT: Aaron wasnâ(TM)t even violating JSTORâ(TM)s Terms of Service at the time. JSTOR and MIT had contractual agreements allowing unlimited downloads to any computers on MITs network. Source: Alex Stamos, http://unhandled.com/2013/01/1...
FACT: Downloading JSTOR articles was one minor footnote among the many amazing projects Aaron was working on at the time. From the fall of 2010 until his death in 2013, Aaronâ(TM)s projects included, but were not limited to: SecureDrop, the leak-protecting technology for journalists now implemented by outlets ranging from The New Yorker to Forbes to The Guardian; the SOPA/PIPA fight, The Flaming Sword of Justice (now The Good Fight), a podcast about activism which went on to reach the top of the iTunes charts; VictoryKit, an online campaigning toolset still mobilizing activists around the world; and co-founding Demand Progress.
FACT: Aaron implemented a piece of software that downloaded articles from the JSTOR website faster than JSTOR originally intended. Aaronâ(TM)s software downloaded articles from the JSTOR website to Aaronâ(TM)s laptop, just like a live person would have downloaded them, but without his having to sit there and click through each of the steps manually. Source: Alex Stamos, http://unhandled.com/2013/01/1...
FACT: Aaron did not hack into any of MITâ(TM)s computers. The CFAA requires that a person gain access to a computer that they werenâ(TM)t authorized to access. Aaron was obviously authorized to access his own laptop.
FACT: Aaron did not hack into MITâ(TM)s network. Aaron connected his laptop to MITâ(TM)s open network by walking into an open computer closet on MITs open campus and simply plugging into an unused ethernet port. Source: Alex Stamos, http://unhandled.com/2013/01/1...
FACT: Aaron was a âoeFellowâ at the Harvard University Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics at the time. Aaron was exactly the type of academic researcher that MIT meant to have downloading articles from the JSTOR database over its open network. Aaronâ(TM)s past research in this regard was the basis of a Stanford Law Review Article where he found troubling connections between corporations and their funding of legal research. Source: Stanford Law Review
http://www.stanfordlawreview.o...
FACT: Aaron wasnâ(TM)t even violating JSTORâ(TM)s Terms of Service at the time. JSTOR and MIT had contractual agreements allowing unlimited downloads to any computers on MITs network.
Source: Alex Stamos, http://unhandled.com/2013/01/1...