On January 11th, 2013 our friend and Demand Progress cofounder Aaron Swartz took his own life. Aaron meant so much to an untold number of people whom he’d touched as an activist, writer, technologist, and loved one. The act took place while he was under indictment — senselessly with up to 50 years in prison being held over his head — for allegedly downloading too many articles from the JSTOR academic cataloging service, using MIT’s open network. As are so many, this case was built on a tenuous legal foundation, and so the prosecutors bullied Aaron to try to compel him to admit his guilt and accept a plea deal. Aaron refused. Aaron’s intimates know that the stress that followed from this predicament was the proximate cause for his suicide. It’s because of what happened to him, in his honor, and so as to grasp at an unattainable modicum of justice, that we’ve worked to reform the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA) -- the statute under which he was prosecuted. A bill that would do just that, named Aaron’s Law, was introduced in his honor and we hope that it will soon be reintroduced in the new Congress. Since Aaron passed — and because of the activism of so many of you — we’ve succeeded at fending off two attempts to expand the CFAA, which would have further stifled expression, activism, and technological progress. That tens of thousands of people have mobilized to work to support such a seemingly esoteric cause is further testament to the profundity of Aaron’s work and the love he has engendered in so many. We miss you, Aaron. -David and David, and the rest of Demand Progress. https://youtube/watch?v=Fgh2dFngFsg
Posted on: Mon, 12 Jan 2015 00:52:15 +0000
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