Aaron Swartz
Jan. 18th, 2013 04:28 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
patoadamI have just learned that today is Internet Freedom Day, so it's a good day for me to say a few words about Aaron Swartz.
Aaron was a genius as well as an idealist. He co-authored the RSS 1.0 specification at the age of 14. I benefit from this work every day.
The U.S. Department of Justice accused Adam of downloading several million academic articles from JSTOR, and threatened him with over 30 years in prison. In view of the fact that the original intent of U.S. copyright law was “to promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts," it can be argued that downloading academic articles (which Aaron may or may not have done) and making them available to the public for free (which Aaron did not do, but may or may not have intended) promotes the progress of science better than locking up academic articles behind a paywall. Jacob Lyles believes that "Aaron's [alleged] crime is theft in precisely the same way that a member of the underground railroad was an accomplice in theft."
Aaron's work to make our scientific heritage available to the public is being carried on by diverse groups, including Demand Progress, which he founded; The Archive Team, which has released the Aaron Swartz Memorial JSTOR Liberator; Creative Commons, whose licenses Aaron helped design; and Public Knowledge. Aaron, sleep softly. You live in mankind.
More about Aaron from Larry Lessig, Cory Doctorow, and osewalrus.
Edit: No, I don't hate copyright laws. I think that in this particular case, our copyright laws do not well serve their original purpose.
Aaron was a genius as well as an idealist. He co-authored the RSS 1.0 specification at the age of 14. I benefit from this work every day.
The U.S. Department of Justice accused Adam of downloading several million academic articles from JSTOR, and threatened him with over 30 years in prison. In view of the fact that the original intent of U.S. copyright law was “to promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts," it can be argued that downloading academic articles (which Aaron may or may not have done) and making them available to the public for free (which Aaron did not do, but may or may not have intended) promotes the progress of science better than locking up academic articles behind a paywall. Jacob Lyles believes that "Aaron's [alleged] crime is theft in precisely the same way that a member of the underground railroad was an accomplice in theft."
Aaron's work to make our scientific heritage available to the public is being carried on by diverse groups, including Demand Progress, which he founded; The Archive Team, which has released the Aaron Swartz Memorial JSTOR Liberator; Creative Commons, whose licenses Aaron helped design; and Public Knowledge. Aaron, sleep softly. You live in mankind.
More about Aaron from Larry Lessig, Cory Doctorow, and osewalrus.
Edit: No, I don't hate copyright laws. I think that in this particular case, our copyright laws do not well serve their original purpose.
