In case you haven’t heard, Aaron Swartz was the co-founder of Reddit and internet activist who recently committed suicide, the cause of which is thought to be the harsh prosecution at the hands of the US government. Long story short:
Swartz used MIT computers to download academic journals from JSTOR
JSTOR dropped all charges, but the government went after Swartz anyways
Carmen Ortiz, the US Attorney, threw the book at Swartz, giving him 30 years in prison. That’s more than what you get for murdering someone
Recent tweets by Wikileaks suggest that Swartz may have been a contributor, which may be the reason why the government went after him like this. This is similar to the unfair prosecution of Tarek Mehanna.
Here’s an article outlining the entire story. It’s definitely worth a read. Here’s the video (8 min long) which talks about the possible link between Swartz and Wikileaks, and the letter that Senator John Cornyn wrote to the US Attorney’s office.
It’s pretty scary how the US government now prosecutes whistle blowers like Bradley Manning. The way our actions on the internet are treated by the law is going to be an interesting debate.
I hope so. The US Attorney’s position is under fire, MIT is launching an investigation into how they played a part in this, and people are calling for inquiries into how the government prosecutes free speech advocates and whistle blowers. Keep in mind that Bradley Manning (the guy who released the Wikileaks cables) is in jail, and we all know how they went after Assange.
Bush was bad, but Obama has unprecedented executive power. He can execute US citizens without having to explain himself to civilian courts, and the US has also started testing drones over US soil.
(NaturalNews) Mere weeks after the death of internet revolutionary Aaron Swartz who was threatened with 50 years of prison time by the U.S. government, the group Anonymous has struck back with a takeover of the (http://www.ussc.gov/). (IP address of 66.153.19.162)
That attack took control of the website and replaced it with the following message from Anonymous:
*Citizens of the world,
Anonymous has observed for some time now the trajectory of justice in the United States with growing concern. We have marked the departure of this system from the noble ideals in which it was born and enshrined. We have seen the erosion of due process, the dilution of constitutional rights, the usurpation of the rightful authority of courts by the “discretion” or prosecutors. We have seen how the law is wielded less and less to uphold justice, and more and more to exercise control, authority and power in the interests of oppression or personal gain.* Anonymous avenges death of Aaron Swartz with takeover of US government judicial website and message of freedom
