Aaron Schwartz, co-creator of RSS and co-founder of Reddit, prosecuted for illegally downloading articles (and facing a possible conviction time of 35 years) hangs himself. Anonymous hacks MIT.
http://thenextweb.com/insider/2013/01/14/anonymous-hacks-mit-website-as-a-tribute-to-aaron-swartz/

Basically what happened: a few years ago Aaron Swartz did the same thing, he spidered PACER and mirrored the contents. This pissed off the DoJ, but they couldn't do anything because even though the court records were locked behind a paywall, they were technically in the public domain. Then, a couple of years ago, he helped raise public awareness of a law that the DoJ really, really wanted.

So, the DoJ was just waiting for him to do something illegal. Anything. And then he did, the SS "somehow" already knew it was him and took over the investigation, and he was prosecuted to the maximum possible extent by someone whose boss's boss is the President of the United States.

But seriously, very sad that stuff like this has to happen. Sadly, the whole "getting harder sentences for 'violating' the integrity of products instead of human beings" seems to be the staple everywhere. Oy.

RIP Aaron Schwartz.

I wandered over to the Volokh Conspiracy to see what their take was. The blogger who posted on the topic declined in his first post to comment on the moral aspect of the situation, instead sticking to the legal details. That's fine; on the other hand, I was rather sickened by the conservatives in the comment section. Stuff along the lines of, "you have to learn to be an adult and respect the laws of the community, blah blah blah". God, conservatives / law and order types are stuffy (passive-aggressive?) as hell. I thought this was a good contrary post:

FBI is really hard on anarchists/anonymous

I would hardly call him a member of anonymous! He was a member of the Harvard University Center for Ethics, and the above comment by Brewster Kahle is the founder of the Internet Archive. He is objectively a much less "ambiguous" character than other leakers like Julian Assange or Bradly Manning, and he was more an activist and "hacker" in the MIT sense of the word.

As far as anarchist, yeah, I'm guessing he was pretty left wing. But then again so is the whole idea of the internet.

This wasn't the FBI. This was the Secret Service and federal prosecutors.

true, buy my point still stands.

is the government really protecting us by protecting corporations from anonymous? i wonder sometimes

no.

lol. The government is full of people, the vast majority appointed employees, each with their own individual motives. You can trust the people in government to protect the American people only insofar as they are people who live in America.

Look at that Frederick Humphries guy, FBI goon who abused his office and then meant to blackmail President Obama with what he discovered. Think he really gives a **** about his country? Dude is there to collect a paycheque and get his dick wet, probably spends most of his time playing Farmville and harassing people he knew in high school using the surveillance state.

Or how about Carmen Ortiz or Stephen Heymann, the prosecutors who drove Swartz (and others) to suicide. The reason they're so incompetently driven to prosecute is because prosecutors with good numbers are more successful when they transition into politics. That's it. You think they're just worried about putting criminals away? That they'd put their country ahead of their political ambitions? lol.

At least feudal kings assumed the very identity of their state, and were expected to maintain the right to rule. Some knob gobbler who's listlessly waiting out his term so he can accept that open job offer from Monsanto is not better than that ****, I don't care what anybody says.

If you are an American who is concerned about politically-minded appointed officials abusing their office for personal gain, sign these petitions:

https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/remove-united-states-district-attorney-carmen-ortiz-office-overreach-case-aaron-swartz/RQNrG1Ck
https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/fire-assistant-us-attorney-steve-heymann/RJKSY2nb

I'm surprised you believe the petitions are worth our time. From the way you speak, Jon`C, the entirety of everybody who matters in the U.S. are selfish, amoral, worthless scum of the earth and we're plummeting in every aspect to become the sewer rats of the global system. Try not to misunderstand me; I'm not insinuating that your points are anything other than valid or that the U.S. doesn't have some very serious issues that need to be addressed. I am, however, confused as to your intent in the sort of posts that you make, and wish to know them better.

Name and shame.

The only way to get rid of malfeasant officials is to make their continued service a personal inconvenience for their bosses. Remember, Ortiz and Heymann might be vain and political, but so are their bosses (Holder and Obama) and they're a lot better at it too. The only question is how much political capital a couple of lawyer cronies are worth.

Don't be ridiculous. The entirety of everybody on earth are selfish, amoral, worthless scum, because humans naturally act in their own self-interest. American politicians aren't exceptional, they're just worth talking about.

OK, Dr. House.

And they're getting away with it like ****ing ballers.

If relating my words to the personality of a fictional character makes them easier to ignore, sure. Whatever helps.

Some people just need the fantasy to keep getting up in the morning. You know what I mean?

I posted that to tell you where I think you're coming from as a person (which was the reason I started the conversation in the first place), not to suggest I was dismissing or ignoring you. You should know that I generally regard fiction higher than non-fiction. After all, Superman helped bring down the KKK.

Reminds me of



100% true, and in addition you can replace animals with "fictional humans" to get bonus meaning points. Bon!

if this is true and he decides to act on it, maybe Jon`C will become a symbol!

Sorry, don't know how to play this video :(
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9J6J5BcHFCs

I can't recommend it though in light of the thread's topic....

Except there's a grain of truth in what he's saying. Maybe not as it pertains to this topic, but especially as of late it appears you frequently are so cynical to the point of being unreasonable, despite if what you say is rooted in accuracy (as is frequently true with House).

If anything he does it in cycles. Like he's programmed by the phases of the moon or something.

I thought I was the robot here! I'm the robot! Me! FGR is the robot! FGR is the ROBOT!!

WIR LADEN UNSERE BATTERIE
JETZT SIND WIR VOLLER ENERGIE
WIR SIND DIE ROBOTER

YA TVOI SLUGA YA TVOI ROBOTNIK

I thought "Jon" was a boy's name??

This particular particular thread topic should indeed inspire some cynicism....

cool story bro.

cool sexist joke bro.

I just realized that Hugh Laurie appeared twice (thrice according to Gebohq) in this thread.