Speaking Truth to Power

from if:book

I’ve spent much of the past 24 hours reading remembrances of Aaron Swartz as well as a wide selection of his own writing.

Guerilla Open Access Manifesto by Aaron Swartz July 2008

from Social Network Unionism by OrsanSenalp

Aaron Swartz and the Two Faces of Power

from Wired Top Stories by Wired Opinion

Power isn’t just an abstraction: It has possessors, supplicants, and hand servants. And it?s not good to be on Power?s bad side if what you do falls into the gray area of enforcing the letter as opposed to the principles of the law.

Debunking DoJ statement on Aaron Swartz’s prosecution

from Boing Boing by Cory Doctorow

Carmen Ortiz, the US Attorney who hounded Aaron Swartz, threatening him with 35 years in prison for downloading scholarly articles from MIT’s open WiFi network, has released a statement explaining how harmless and pleasant she had been with Aaron. Mike Masnick just shreds the claims Ortiz makes in her release:

U.S. Attorney Says Aaron Swartz Prosecution ‘Was Appropriate’

from Wired Top Stories by David Kravets

Carmen Ortiz, the U.S. attorney in Massachusetts, said Thursday the government’s “conduct was appropriate” in its handling of the Aaron Swartz prosecution.

Aaron Swartz?s Prosecutor: I Wasn?t Seeking Maximum Sentence

from Mashable! by Alex Fitzpatrick

Setting the record straight on Aaron Swartz’s contributions

from Boing Boing by Glenn Fleishman

I don’t have more to say about Aaron Swartz’s death; I knew him a little, but felt his loss keenly. As coverage appeared, however, I found myself concerned about his legacy. Aaron did so much in such a short period of time, but several of his accomplishments have been glossed over in a way that distorts his contributions.

Under fire US Attorney breaks her silence to defend prosecution of Aaron Swartz

from The Next Web by Jon Russell

Five days after the death of Aaron Swartz, the widely-heralded computer programmer, US Attorney Carmen Ortiz, who led the prosecution against him has broken her silence and defended the efforts of authorities on the case against him.

?Aaron?s Law? Proposed on Reddit in Honor of Aaron Swartz

from Mashable! by Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai

White House Must Respond to Petition to Remove U.S. Attorney in Aaron Swartz Case

from Wired Top Stories by David Kravets
A Whitehouse.gov petition demanding the President Barack Obama administration remove Massachusetts’ top federal prosecutor in the aftermath of the Aaron Swartz suicide has surpassed 25,000 signatures — meaning the administration must enter the hotly contested debate whether authorities went too far in prosecuting the 26-year-old internet sensation.

After Aaron Swartz: The Tech World Must Talk About Depression

from Mashable! by Christina Warren

Aaron?s Murder by 1% is to Trigger the Global Revolution

from Social Network Unionism by OrsanSenalp

Tim Wu: what if we’d treated Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak the way we treated Aaron Swartz?

from Boing Boing by Cory Doctorow
Tim Wu, Columbia law professor and technology law expert, has a very well-written piece in the New Yorkerdescribing the point-scoring culture of America’s prosecutors and its incompatibility with the kind of eccentric genius that America has always boasted about:

Aaron’s Law

from Boing Boing by Xeni Jardin
“We should prevent what happened to Aaron from happening to other Internet users,” Rep. Zoe Lofgren announced today on Reddit. “I’m introducing ‘Aaron’s Law’ to change the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA).”

“Aaron’s Law” introduced, would change computer law so violating Terms of Service isn’t a felony

from Boing Boing by Cory Doctorow
Aaron Swartz killed himself two years to the day after he was charged with violating the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, a controversial legislation that some courts have interpreted as making it a felony to do anything not explicitly authorized with a computer you don’t own (for example, changing one character in a URL in your browser and accessing a document can be a felony). Many attempts have been made to reform CFAA, none successful. Now Rep Zoe Lofgren (D-CA) has introduced “Aaron’s Law”, to insert the following in its pre-amble:

Beyond Aaron Swartz: We Don’t Need Martyrs … But Changes

from Wired Top Stories by Danah Boyd
The case against Aaron isn¿t about justice and national security. It¿s about a broader, systemic battle. It¿s about power. But we should also fear the likelihood that Aaron will be turned into a martyr: an abstraction of a geek activist destroyed by the state.

How Aaron Swartz Fought For Government Transparency

from Boing Boing by Xeni JardinTrevor Timm, my colleague at the Freedom of the Press Foundation, says, “Aaron Swartz worked a lot with MuckRock in the years before he died. Michael Morisy, MuckRock’s founder, just wrote a really great guest blog post about Aaron’s commitment to government transparency, which has been lost in all his other accomplishments.”

Petition asking MIT to apologize for pursuing Aaron Swartz; hackerspaces contributing to projects Aaron worked on

from Boing Boing by Cory Doctorow

Towards Learning from Losing Aaron Swartz: Part 2

from Stanford Center for Internet and Society by Jennifer Granick
The CFAA is incredibly broad and covers swaths of online conduct that should not merit prison time.  To point out that under the CFAA, Aaron’s defense was hard is not to say that I believe Aaron was guilty.  Aaron was authorized to access JSTOR as a result of being on MIT’s campus.  The CFAA may protect the box from unauthorized access, but it does not regulate the means or the speed of access.  If you are allowed to download, and Aaron was, then it is not a crime to download really, really fast.  Even if the server owner would prefer you took your time. Read more » about Towards Learning from Losing Aaron Swartz: Part 2

Greenwald: Carmen Ortiz and Stephen Heymann must be held accountable for prosecutorial abuse in Aaron Swartz case

from Boing Boing by Xeni Jardin

Towards Learning from Losing Aaron Swartz

from Boing Boing by Xeni Jardin
Jennifer Granick: “Towards Learning from Losing Aaron Swartz.”

Guerilla Open Access Manifesto by Aaron Swartz July 2008

from Social Network Unionism by OrsanSenalp

1. Information is power. But like all power, there are those who want to keep it for themselves. The world?s entire scientific and cultural heritage, published over centuries in books and journals, is increasingly being digitized and locked up by a handful of private corporations. Want to read the papers featuring the most famous results of the sciences? You?ll need to send enormous amounts to publishers like Reed Elsevier.
2. There are those struggling to change this. The Open Access Movement has fought valiantly to ensure that scientists do not sign their copyrights away but instead ensure their work is published on the Internet, under terms that allow anyone to access it. But even under the best scenarios, their work will only apply to things published in the future. Everything up until now will have been lost.
3. That is too high a price to pay. Forcing academics to pay money to read the work of their colleagues? Scanning entire libraries but only allowing the folks at Google to read them? Providing scientific articles to those at elite universities in the First World, but not to children in the Global South? It?s outrageous and unacceptable.

Aaron Swartz Plea Deal Reportedly Rejected Days Before His Death

from Mashable! by Alex Fitzpatrick

Aaron Swartz’s politics weren’t just about free technology: they were about freeing humanity

from Boing Boing by Cory Doctorow
In a guest editorial on Naked Capitalism, Matt Stoller reminds us that Aaron Swartz’s politics weren’t just about digital freedom: he saw free software and open networks as instrumental to eliminating corruption and corporatism in wider society.

In the Wake of Aaron Swartz’s Death, Let’s Fix Draconian Computer Crime Law

from EFF.org Updates by Marcia Hofmann
Outpourings of grief and calls for change continue to flood the Internet after the suicide of Aaron Swartz, only 26 years old.

MIT president appoints Hal Abelson to investigate university’s role in Aaron Swartz’s prosecution

from Boing Boing by Cory Doctorow
MIT president Rafael Reif sent out a university-wide email yesterday announcing an investigation into the school’s involvement in the prosecution of Aaron Swartz. He’s appointed MIT professor Hal Abelson, a founding director of Creative Commons, who worked with Aaron, “to lead a thorough analysis of MIT’s involvement from the time that we first perceived unusual activity on our network in fall 2010 up to the present” and has pledged to “share the report with the MIT community when I receive it.”

DoJ drops charges against Aaron Swartz

from Boing Boing by Cory Doctorow
The US government has dismissed the case against Aaron Swartz.
In the wake of the tragic suicide of Aaron Swartz, the United States Attorney decided to formally drop the pending charges against the 26-year-old information hacktivist.

Watch Aaron Swartz Explain ?How We Stopped SOPA?

from Mashable! by Alex Fitzpatrick

Whitehouse.gov petition to remove US Attorney Carmen Ortiz from office for overreach in the case of Aaron Swartz

from Boing Boing by Mark Frauenfelder
I don’t think the “We the People” petitions at Whitehouse.gov have an effect on what the Obama administration decides to do, but I signed this one anyway:

Free Freedom of Information Requests, in honor of Aaron Swartz

from Boing Boing by Cory Doctorow
Michael, from Muckrock (a site that helps you make Freedom of Information Act requests) sez, “Aaron Swartz was one of MuckRock’s earliest users, and a steadfast friend and advisor. He regularly suggested that we make the site free for anyone to file a request, and so in his honor, we’re doing that. Many of his own requests, on topics from the U.S. Mint to Bradley Manning to Domain Seizures, are public here. I was always struck by Aaron’s confidence and sincerity when we spoke, and always sensed that to him, the latest charges were a game to be beaten. That it should end like this is too tragic for me to comprehend.

Github repository for Aaron Swartz memorials

from Boing Boing by Cory Doctorow

Swartz Manifestosu: İnternet kimin? (2)

Aaron Swartz reveals the hypocrisy of our Justice Department