Reddit Pioneer Aaron Swartz Commits Suicide

• vball10set

  ...at 26 years old....damn
  
  http://now.msn.com/aaron-swartz-commits-suicide/
  

  Aaron Swartz, one of the minds behind online social news giant Reddit, killed himself in New York City Friday. The 26-year-old was a precocious coding talent, co-authoring the first generation of RSS — a core part of the modern Internet experience — at 14 years old. Swartz joined Reddit through a merger with his own Infogami service in 2006. After leaving Reddit, he devoted himself to Internet activism, co-founding the advocacy group demandprogress.org. Swartz was facing legal pressures, after his 2011 indictment for allegedly mass-downloading documents from the JSTOR academic archive with intent to distribute them. Swartz was open about his ongoing battle with severe depression and other medical problems. His suicide was confirmed by an uncle, Michael Wolf. [Source]

• sportchampps

  Sad... He shouldn't have even been charged with a felony but aomeone wanted to make a name off of him.
• dlazz

  sportchampps;1364882 wrote:He shouldn't have even been charged with a felony

  Yes, he should have. He was stealing.
• justincredible

  

  dlazz;1365182 wrote:Yes, he should have. He was stealing.

  There is no way he should've been facing 35 years in prison. Especially since the place he was "stealing" from didn't pursue charges and was in the process of making them publicly accessible anyway.
• I Wear Pants

  dlazz;1365182 wrote:Yes, he should have. He was stealing.

  A felony really?
• sportchampps

  What he did wasn't illegal at most all he did was trespass
• -Society-

  

  sportchampps;1365616 wrote:What he did wasn't illegal at most all he did was trespass

  Good to know that "at most all he did was trespass" isn't illegal.
• dlazz

  justincredible;1365538 wrote:There is no way he should've been facing 35 years in prison. Especially since the place he was "stealing" from didn't pursue charges and was in the process of making them publicly accessible anyway.

  Copyright infringement cases always bring absurd charges like that when they're on a grand scale. He was more or less grabbing thousands of copyrighted journals and posting them for free. That is a felony since he was doing it on a grand-scale without regard.
  
  Yes, that's illegal.
  Yes, he should've gotten in trouble.
  
  It doesn't matter if the company was getting ready to release them anyway. Breaking the law is breaking the law.
• hasbeen

  

  dlazz;1365633 wrote: Breaking the law is breaking the law.

  /SVF'd
• I Wear Pants

  dlazz;1365633 wrote:Copyright infringement cases always bring absurd charges like that when they're on a grand scale. He was more or less grabbing thousands of copyrighted journals and posting them for free. That is a felony since he was doing it on a grand-scale without regard.
  
  Yes, that's illegal.
  Yes, he should've gotten in trouble.
  
  It doesn't matter if the company was getting ready to release them anyway. Breaking the law is breaking the law.

  This is a pretty absurd statement. Rape isn't the same as stealing a pack of gum which isn't the same as tax fraud which isn't the same as jaywalking. Breaking the law isn't breaking the law, even the law recognizes that.
  
  "That is a felony since he was doing it on a grand-scale without regard."
  
  Society is not better off by having this guy behind bars for 35 years for distributing (alledgedly) academic journals.
• -Society-

  

  I Wear Pants;1365670 wrote: Society is not better off by having this guy behind bars for 35 years for distributing (alledgedly) academic journals.

  He didn't think so either.
• dlazz

  I Wear Pants;1365670 wrote:This is a pretty absurd statement.

  An absurd statement, but only because you misinterpreted it. I wasn't saying rape = stealing a pack of gum. I was saying that level of theft is well worth a felony.
• sportchampps

  He never distributed the articles.
• dlazz

  sportchampps;1365770 wrote:He never distributed the articles.

  No, but he still broke the law.
  

  He faced 13 felony charges, including wire fraud, computer fraud and unlawfully obtaining information from a protected computer.

• Mulva

  

  dlazz;1365774 wrote:No, but he still broke the law.

  Allegedly.
• dlazz

  Indeed.
• derek bomar

  

  ***** took the easy road