[ale] [OT] RIP Aaron Swartz

[Tim Watts]

Anyone else as sickened by this as I am?

http://www.cnn.com/2013/01/12/us/new-york-reddit-founder-suicide/index.html

http://lessig.tumblr.com/post/40347463044/prosecutor-as-bully

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2012/09/feds-go-overboard-in-prosecuting-information-activist/

I hope this isn't tinder for a flame war, and Jim, I'll apologize
upfront if it turns into that.

I don't contend that the prosecutor could have / should have foreseen
this outcome.  What sickens me is the enormous talent we've lost because
of a prosecutor with no sense of proportion.  Even if Mr. Swartz hadn't
killed himself would it really have been necessary to waste such a
talent with a 35 year sentence for a single misguided prank?  Even
JSTOR, the victim, declined to press charges for his crime and asked the
feds to drop it.  The federal prosecutor's name is Carmen Ortiz if
anyone's interested.

Aaron Swartz had already made important contributions to advancing the
concept of Free Culture in our society (see the Lessig post).  At such a
young age he almost certainly would have made many more.  But no more.
Just a sickening waste.

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