Monday, January 14, 2013

RIP: Aaron Swartz

Aaron Swartz was a wunderkind who at age of 14 co-developed RSS protocol
that is still used by almost web every site that supports a blog or a podcast feed.

Recently he got (unpaid) access to many JSTOR scientific articles at MIT.
Swartz, if convicted, faced a maximum of $1 million in fines
and more than 35 years in prison... and he killed himself.

JSTOR announced the same week as Swartz's death it would make "more than 4.5 million articles" available to the public limitedly for free.


Here is a blog post of MIT professor Philip Greenspun Here is what he says:

I asked the lawyers “Suppose that the government’s case is completely frivolous and Swartz is guaranteed to be acquitted. What would he expect to spend in legal fees to defend the case?” They didn’t want to reveal anything particular to Aaron’s case but said “Generally the minimum cost to defend a federal criminal lawsuit is $1.5 million.”

Tim O'Reilly suggest to read this article by Larry Lessig

Be Free, Internet

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