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Calls to Action on the Fifth Anniversary of the Death of Aaron Swartz (eff.org)

On the fifth anniversary of the death of Aaron Swartz, EFF activist Elliot Harmon posted a remembrance: When you look around the digital rights community, it's easy to find Aaron's fingerprints all over it. He and his organization Demand Progress worked closely with EFF to stop SOPA. Long before that, he played key roles in the development of RSS, RDF, and Creative Commons. He railed hard against the idea of government-funded scientific research being unavailable to the public, and his passion continues to motivate the open access community. Aaron inspired Lawrence Lessig to fight corruption in politics, eventually fueling Lessig's White House run... It's tempting to become pessimistic in the face of countless threats to free speech and privacy. But the story of the SOPA protests demonstrates that we can win in the face of seemingly insurmountable odds.
He shares a link to a video of Aaron's most inspiring talk, "How We Stopped SOPA," writing that "Aaron warned that SOPA wouldn't be the last time Hollywood attempted to use copyright law as an excuse to censor the Internet... 'The enemies of the freedom to connect have not disappeared... We won this fight because everyone made themselves the hero of their own story. Everyone took it as their job to save this crucial freedom. They threw themselves into it. They did whatever they could think of to do.'"

On the anniversary of Aaron's death, his brother Ben Swartz, an engineer at Twitch, wrote about his own efforts to effect change in ways that would've made Aaron proud, while Aaron's mother urged calls to Congress to continue pushing for reform to the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act.

And there were countless other remembrances on Twitter, including one fro Cory Doctorow, who tweeted a link to Lawrence Lessig's analysis of the prosecution. And Lessig himself marked the anniversary with several posts on Twitter. "None should rest," reads one, "for still, there is no peace."

6 of 151 comments (clear)

  1. Once you control information... by MindPrison · · Score: 4, Insightful

    ...you control the people.

    Information wants to be free = people want to be free, this is what we fight for. Those who are in control, wants to have MORE control. You're always guilty unless proven innocent in the eyes of those who have everything to hide fro you. A thief thinks everyone steals.

    Once information is free - those in power realize they must abide by those who hired them to do the job of government in the first place - we the people did, we are their entire purpose, not the other way around. Freedom of information means that no one is safe if they do wrong, because it becomes hard to hide from the general population, and that's the way it should me.

    Freedom = to be free, free from tyranny and control.

    --
    What this world is coming to - is for you and me to decide.
  2. Re:2018 and swartz by sabri · · Score: 4, Insightful

    year of the lunix desktop?

    Year of suicide prevention. Aaron Schwartz unfortunately committed suicide. People who commit suicide mostly do so in order to end their own suffering. The reality however is that this does not lower the total amount of suffering in the world. Instead, their family and friends will inherent their suffering, thus any suicide will only increase the total amount of suffering in the world. Ergo: the act of suicide is probably the most egoistic act in the world: to end ones own perceived suffering resulting in an increased amount of suffering in others.

    Suicide awareness is more important. The national suicide prevention hotline can be found at 1-800-273-8255.

    --
    I'm not a complete idiot... Some parts are missing.
  3. Remember this lack of due process by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    When you think rape tribunals on college campuses are a good idea. Or accusing people of sex assault without trial ruins their careers.

    Schwartz would have understood that. Knew what extreme ideology looked like.

  4. It's all propaganda now by SuperKendall · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Everyone else may have agendas and fail in their full diligence, but Fox fails INTENTIONALLY since its inception

    If you claim Fox News is propaganda, without saying CNN is propaganda, MSNBC is propaganda, the NYT is propaganda, then how can we respect your hyper-partisan views?

    Here's a hint: It's all propaganda now. Most journalism now is driving you to think a certain way, providing facts that fit a narrative and omitting ones that do not.

    Until you realize that you yourself are just another tool of propaganda by denouncing a single source and implying the others are reliable.

    P.S. Fox News was not any more designed as propaganda than any of the other news sources, it evolved like the rest of them to where we are now. To claim there is any difference between what Fox is doing and what CNN is doing is what I take exception at. You cannot label them differently.

    --
    "There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
  5. Re: 2018 and swartz by c6gunner · · Score: 4, Informative

    Your life is not your own but a gift from God whether you choose to believe that or not.

    How would that make it not mine? When someone gives me a gift for Christmas, or my birthday, that gift is mine. If I want to pitch it into the fireplace, I'm free to do so. Nobody who gives a gift would insist that they still own it.

    If your "god" thinks he still owns the things he gifts, he's a friggin sociopath.

  6. Re: 2018 and swartz by Demena · · Score: 4, Insightful

    There are no gods. And if they were they would owe explanations as to why they are such terrible beings.