Aaron Swartz died 13 years ago today
7 comments
I have been thinking about Aaron lately. In 2012 Aaron was instrumental in helping to defeat the SOPA and PIPA bills. The [internet went black](https://freedom.press/issues/sopa-protest-10-years-later/) causing a tidal wave of backlash so strong that the bill's backers had to withdraw the legislation.
Today we really need this kind of activism. We need people hammering the phones, turning their websites black, more than ever. We have the far right willing push forward authoritarian agendas, that attempt to silence peoples speech, the people behind trump are using these powers to kill and stir up aggression. There are more abuses to people's lives then ever. We have technologies like AI that are being developed in secret, all of its progress being pushed forward that is going to cause costs to rise, put more load on our power grids. The financials beind the investment is putting a strain on obtaining parts for General Computing. We have social media algorithms that manipulate people choices.
We have to start reigning in this power, put pressure on your representatives to end Citizens United and we need to enforce anti-trust.
Today we really need this kind of activism. We need people hammering the phones, turning their websites black, more than ever. We have the far right willing push forward authoritarian agendas, that attempt to silence peoples speech, the people behind trump are using these powers to kill and stir up aggression. There are more abuses to people's lives then ever. We have technologies like AI that are being developed in secret, all of its progress being pushed forward that is going to cause costs to rise, put more load on our power grids. The financials beind the investment is putting a strain on obtaining parts for General Computing. We have social media algorithms that manipulate people choices.
We have to start reigning in this power, put pressure on your representatives to end Citizens United and we need to enforce anti-trust.
I often wonder what Aaron would think of the internet today.
For those here who are younger there was a very a different culture online in the mid-00s. It was very optimistic about how access to data and global communication could create a better world – The Arab Spring being one of the best examples.
This was even a view largely shared by Western governments and "The great firewall of China" was ridiculed by almost everyone at the time.
Today it feels like very few of us still believe in Aaron's vision of an open internet anymore. As someone who is around the same age as Aaron and shared his optimism, it's been hard to watch the internet become an increasingly closed, restricted and regulated place in recent years.
I understand that most people disagree with me on that which is fine, but it's also why I'd love to hear Aaron's take on it – did we just get it wrong? Is the internet today with all its bad actors, AI bots and big tech algorithms fundamentally a different place than it was back then? Would Aaron still view open access to data the same? How would he feel about tech companies scrapping the web to build AI models for their own financial gain?
For those here who are younger there was a very a different culture online in the mid-00s. It was very optimistic about how access to data and global communication could create a better world – The Arab Spring being one of the best examples.
This was even a view largely shared by Western governments and "The great firewall of China" was ridiculed by almost everyone at the time.
Today it feels like very few of us still believe in Aaron's vision of an open internet anymore. As someone who is around the same age as Aaron and shared his optimism, it's been hard to watch the internet become an increasingly closed, restricted and regulated place in recent years.
I understand that most people disagree with me on that which is fine, but it's also why I'd love to hear Aaron's take on it – did we just get it wrong? Is the internet today with all its bad actors, AI bots and big tech algorithms fundamentally a different place than it was back then? Would Aaron still view open access to data the same? How would he feel about tech companies scrapping the web to build AI models for their own financial gain?
Discussions at the time:
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5046845
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5048820
Blog post in 2016 by Noah, Aaron's brother: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10881413
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5046845
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5048820
Blog post in 2016 by Noah, Aaron's brother: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10881413
The positive contributions he never got a chance to make are sad to contemplate.
Thanks for posting this
Aaron Swartz was a programmer and an internet freedom activist. He co-authored the RSS spec at age 14, and helped build Reddit, Creative Commons, Markdown syntax, Open Library, and more. But he was much more than the sum of his outstanding code contributions. He believed public information hidden behind unreasonable paywalls should be free, and fought to make it actually public.
In 2008, he wrote a script to download millions of federal court documents from the government's paywalled PACER database. In due time, he was caught by federal authorities, but the case was closed without filing charges. Aaron had violated the terms of service, but he had not broken the law as the documents were public property. The cache is now permanently hosted on the Internet Archive.
In late 2010, he started running a script to download the JSTOR archive, a digital library that locks millions of academic journals, papers, books, and primary sources behind expensive paywalls. JSTOR caught on, and started firewalling him. Aaron bypassed the firewalls by entering an unlocked utility closet in the basement of MIT's Building 16 and connected his laptop to the network switch, hiding it under a cardboard box. This did not end well.
MIT and JSTOR found the laptop and contacted the authorities, who turned this into a federal sting operation, and used a camera to catch Aaron in the act. Federal prosecutors and U.S. attorneys tried to make an example out of him. Instead of a simple trespass or civil suit, they charged him with multiple felonies including CFAA and wire fraud, threatening him with 35 years in prison and $1 million in fines (comparable to sentences for manslaughter, bank robbery, and worse crimes). Aaron rejected a plea deal that would brand him a felon.
After three years, Aaron was still facing trial and the full weight of the federal government. On January 11, 2013, he took his life. He was 26 years old.
Today, we pay tribute to a pioneering builder and thinker of the open web.
Some links:
Aaron's manifesto on freeing academic knowledge: https://ia600101.us.archive.org/1/items/GuerillaOpenAccessManifesto/Goamjuly2008.pdf
Aaron's weblogs: https://github.com/joshleitzel/rawthought/tree/master
An excellent documentary on Aaron Swartz: https://archive.org/details/TheInternetsOwnBoyTheStoryOfAaronSwartz
Aaron’s keynote “How we stopped SOPA”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fgh2dFngFsg
16 year old Aaron speaking at the launch of Creative Commons: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YpT_V-DB1JU