Internet
activist and programming star Aaron Swartz has died, his family has confirmed,
committing suicide in New York while facing a potential $1m in fines and up to
35 years in prison over federal charges around computer hacking. Swartz died on
Friday at the age of 26, his uncle and his legal team independently confirmed
to MIT’s The Tech.
The
programmer was integral in creating RSS, and created a company that later
merged with popular internet destination Reddit. However, more recently he was
investigated for hacking JSTOR, the subscription-based journal service, and
extracting its database with the intention for public release.
Swartz
was a vocal open-access campaigner, and had form in turning to hacking when
demands for public data went unheard. In 2008, he wrote software to extract and
collate information from the Pacer directory of federal judicial documents, the
NYT reports, in protest of the service’s $0.10-per-page fee for retrieval.
Swartz’s app snagged around 20m pages using free library accounts.
The
government opted not to press charges, but Swartz was less lucky after breaking
into JSTOR. Then, he physically breached security, installed a laptop running
custom software, and pulled 4.8m documents from the database. Although JSTOR
did not pursue the hacktivist itself, US attorney Carmen M. Ortiz didn’t feel
so accommodating, and Swartz was indicted back in July 2011.
For more
on Swartz – and the impact his work on free-data, and the world he leaves
behind – we’d recommend Lawrence Lessig’s piece “Prosecutor as Bully.”
BoingBoing’s Cory Doctorow also has a must-read tribute to Swartz,
including information on the organization, DemandProgress, Swartz helped
establish. Finally, Swartz’s partner, Quinn Norton, has a piece that’s well
worth reading.
Open-access activist and internet hero Aaron Swartz dies is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
Source:http://www.techgig.com/tech-news/editors-pick/Open-access-activist-and-internet-hero-Aaron-Swartz-dies-16700
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