I keep thinking of Aaron Swartz. RIP

[upi402]

Wikipedia

I heard about the government hounding this wonderful guy all the way to suicide while listening to Democracy Now. Where is justice? I want my damn country back! His efforts cause me to take action to defend the internet and our free use of it. He affected my life and motivated me to take action.

Democracy Now! live stream memorial;
http://www.democracynow.org/live/democracy_now_livestream_of_aaron_swartz

"Service at Cooper Union;
This Saturday Democracy Now! will provide a special livestream as family and friends of Aaron Swartz gather at Cooper Union’s Great Hall in New York City to celebrate his life and remember their beloved friend, sibling, child, and partner.

Speakers include Taren Stinebrickner-Kauffman, David Segal, Ben Wikler, Roy Singham, Doc Searls, Edward Tufte, David Isenberg, Holden Karnofsky and Tom Chiarella and other friends. OK Go’s Damian Kush will be performing at the service."

[upi402]

1. In case you don't know who this great man was, here's a link

http://www.democracynow.org/live/democracy_now_livestream_of_aaron_swartz

He did a lot for all of us.

[JDPriestly]

2. The internet -- yet another innovation funded by our government, by the public,

that private industry is stealing from us and then charging us to use.

When will we learn?

A lot of basic research funded by the taxpayers is co-opted by private enterprise. That would be fine except that when it comes time to pay back, to pay the share of taxes that would compensate the rest of the taxpayers for the profiteering from public innovation, the pirates that hijacked the innovations say, "No."

[ReRe]

3. Thanks for posting this, upi402...

.... I didn't catch Amy announcing this. TIME IS 4-6PM

I can't stop thinking about him either. Amy had his SO on her show I think Tues or Wed this week and a man who was going to testify on his behalf. I will definitely be watching this afternoon...

RIP, Aaron Swartz

[upi402]

4. Surprised nobody cares about this man.

I guess we have football and singing contest priorities even here on DU?


Thanks for noting Amy and Aaron ReRE!

[ReRe]

5. Did you watch the Aaron Swartz Memorial yesterday???

It would not surprise if Amy (Goodman, Democracynow.org, 8am Est weekdays) doesn't run some of the speaker's clips this coming week, like Teren's and the other strong speakers who know what really happened to Aaron and weren't afraid to speak out about it.

Try not to take offense at no response right now. There is so much going on right now... heck there may be allot of people on here that don't even know about it for one reason or another, or maybe they headed off to the Inaugural early and don't have a computer. Let's see if Amy posts some clips from the Memorial at Cooper Union and post them.

And if they find our posts back and forth, maybe they can go to DemocracyNow.org and go back to the first of the week, or even to the previous Friday (Jan 11, 2013) to watch. She devoted so much to Aaron Swartz all week long.

http://www.democracynow.org

[mythology]

6. Perhaps people disagree with the coverage of his death or just the inexorable movement of time

There was a lot of discussion about this when it happened. But if nobody has any real frame of reference for why he was considered important by many in the open source community, there's no real reason to others to comment.

But for me, I personally I am a little tired of hearing about the guy because I don't have a lot of sympathy for him. He knew what he was doing was illegal and that he suffered from depression.

But also his supporters aren't doing a great job of giving me a reason to support him. They talk about the lengthy prison sentence and large monetary fine he could have faced, but fail to mention that there was a plea deal for a few months in prison. They fail to mention that he accessed Jstor by illegally breaking into an MIT network closet to access a network he didn't legally have the right to be on. They fail to mention that he had previously discussed suicide and depression when they blame the prosecutor for Swartz' suicide as if it was something out of the blue.

[upi402]

7. This is the most offensive post I've seen on DU

You deserve full ignore.

It is nobody's responsibility to give you a reason to understand what has happened. It is your responsibility to discern that the trees imply a forest.


Figure it out, or...
Go back to freeperville troll.

"The question is not whether we will be extremists, but what kind of extremists we will be."
-MLK

[Fire Walk With Me]

8. Within 24 hours of a petition to fire his prosecutors reaching fulfillment,

the white house quadrupled the number of signatures required for a petition to be given attention.