Web Pioneer and Activist Aaron Swartz Dead at 26

CommanderFrank

CommanderFrank

Cat Can't Scratch It
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Aaron Swartz, co-founder of Reddit, co-inventor of RSS, creator of web.py and an avid Internet activist died yesterday by his own hand in New York City. Swartz had been indicted for stealing millions of documents from MIT and faced stiff fines and a long prison sentence if convicted.

He was also an activist who used his computer skills and devotion to public information to foster political change, most recently through Demand Progress, a nonprofit organization that he founded.
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I've read about a lot of suicides lately. I was at someone's house a couple days ago and they had 4 suicides in 3 years on his street. Always very sad to hear about someone taking their life or a life of another.
 
This guy was amazing. Also as a student who has used JSTOR his want to free and release research documents from its horrible clutches and give it to everyone would've been awesome. He will be missed.
 
I guess everyone missed this part;

Swartz had been indicted for stealing millions of documents from MIT and faced stiff fines and a long prison sentence if convicted.
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I'm all for a RIP thread but not for someone who takes their own life.
 
You'd think someone who's as talented as him would find a way to get the information out there without anyone finding out who did it.

And yeah, really hard to feel any sadness for someone who commits suicide when tied to a potential prison sentence.
 
sfsuphysics said:
You'd think someone who's as talented as him would find a way to get the information out there without anyone finding out who did it.

And yeah, really hard to feel any sadness for someone who commits suicide when tied to a potential prison sentence.
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He was facing 35 years, possibly more. People serve less time for crimes like rape, murder. No, it doesn't justify suicide, but I don't see what's wrong in having sympathy for him.
 
Sheesh he didn't even want to wait till they were able to convict him, which they might not have been able to do, or not done with the max penalty.

I feel like there's gotta be more to do this - like maybe he was drunk or high at the time of the act,
 
x3sphere said:
He was facing 35 years, possibly more. People serve less time for crimes like rape, murder. No, it doesn't justify suicide, but I don't see what's wrong in having sympathy for him.
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I second that.


We lost someone that was trying to better the world.
 
next-Jin said:
I guess everyone missed this part;



I'm all for a RIP thread but not for someone who takes their own life.
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Dead is dead and sad is sad.

Unless someone is truly a twisted genocidal maniac or some such which makes it impossible to feel sorry for them (like someone on this list), I do feel sorry for people who are driven to killing themselves for whatever reason.
 
x3sphere said:
He was facing 35 years, possibly more. People serve less time for crimes like rape, murder. No, it doesn't justify suicide, but I don't see what's wrong in having sympathy for him.
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People who rape and murder face 35 years too, it doesn't mean you actually get that , people who murder face life in prison not less than 35 years. Seriously the logical reasoning here at hard is pretty remedial. Facing charges for which you have not even been convicted nor sentenced on has never meant that is what will actually happen. After plea bargaining, judges, statements everything hardly anyone serves anywhere near the max they could have. For all he knows he could have been in and out in a couple years with good behavior.

Also given the spirit of Reddit which is a flaming genmay like no rules garbage bin of the internet full of the most insensitive statements and barely legal content, lol can people really cry if some people make comments like that on one of the founders deaths? kind of hypocritical if you ask me.
 
rudy said:
People who rape and murder face 35 years too, it doesn't mean you actually get that , people who murder face life in prison not less than 35 years. Seriously the logical reasoning here at hard is pretty remedial. Facing charges for which you have not even been convicted nor sentenced on has never meant that is what will actually happen. After plea bargaining, judges, statements everything hardly anyone serves anywhere near the max they could have. For all he knows he could have been in and out in a couple years with good behavior.

Also given the spirit of Reddit which is a flaming genmay like no rules garbage bin of the internet full of the most insensitive statements and barely legal content, lol can people really cry if some people make comments like that on one of the founders deaths? kind of hypocritical if you ask me.
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I realize this, but it's still ridiculous to slap on such a charge even though he'd serve less time in all likelihood. Regardless, we don't even know if he did this because of the charges, from my understanding he had other mental issues too. It's a shame he didn't get help really.
 
rudy said:
People who rape and murder face 35 years too, it doesn't mean you actually get that , people who murder face life in prison not less than 35 years. Seriously the logical reasoning here at hard is pretty remedial. Facing charges for which you have not even been convicted nor sentenced on has never meant that is what will actually happen. After plea bargaining, judges, statements everything hardly anyone serves anywhere near the max they could have. For all he knows he could have been in and out in a couple years with good behavior.

Also given the spirit of Reddit which is a flaming genmay like no rules garbage bin of the internet full of the most insensitive statements and barely legal content, lol can people really cry if some people make comments like that on one of the founders deaths? kind of hypocritical if you ask me.
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Which is quite interesting when you realize the vast majority of reddit users seem to be of a certain political affiliation.
 
I feel sorry for the guy and I think the case was an example of how messed up our legal system is. I was kind of hoping his case would bring a larger discussion forward about crime and punishment.

Personally, I don't ever see suicide as the answer, unless you know the location of the last remnants of mankind and an alien interrogator is on his way to extract it from you... then sure off yourself. I think there enough people like myself watching this case that he wasn't going to get 35 years and if he did we would have made sure he didn't actually serve it. I think there were probably more stressors in his life, than just this case, that drove him to end it.
 
He probably would have gotten just 1 year in a minimum sec prison.
He took the cheap way out.

Millions of academic journals freed = no big deal.
 
EchtoGammut said:
I think there were probably more stressors in his life, than just this case, that drove him to end it.
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Personally I think judging someone else for commiting suicide is up there with the douchiest things you can do. Is suicide a selfish thing to do? Yeah, but thinking you could possibly be knowing what's going on in their life and in their mind to drive them to that is just ignorant.
 
dr.kevin said:
He probably would have gotten just 1 year in a minimum sec prison.
He took the cheap way out.

Millions of academic journals freed = no big deal.
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I'll never understand this shit. The "cheap" way out? Seriously? Everyone dies. Living until the bitter end should not earn you some sort of begrudging respect. There are plenty of old fucks who have simply hurt more and more people the longer they lived. You need to clearly and succinctly state your criteria for judging whether someone's life is 'cheap' or not.

If your criteria is that they do the most 'good' for the species according to some set of principles, or whether it is just that life should not be forfeit no matter the circumstances (which completely demeans any meaning there ever was to life I might add - there is no life without death), you need to state it. Otherwise as far as I'm concerned, summary judgements like this are a cancer which compose, in part, the human condition.
 
So someone who was trying to make people accountable for their actions killed himself because he couldn't handle being accountable for his own illegal actions?

No years shed here.
 
ocellaris said:
So someone who was trying to make people accountable for their actions killed himself because he couldn't handle being accountable for his own illegal actions?

No years shed here.
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If the word 'illegal' completely eliminates all possibility of empathy from you without any regard for what crime they actually committed, then I'd suggest that your feelings on the matter were never worth very much to begin with.
 
None of us here knows what was his own personal justification for suicide. There are times that the hurt or pain is so great you are desperate to make it stop. Some folks just go for the "self terminate" route because in their minds that's the only solution which is a sad. My thoughts and prayers go out to his family and hopefully he found peace.
 
odditory said:
Sheesh he didn't even want to wait till they were able to convict him, which they might not have been able to do, or not done with the max penalty.

I feel like there's gotta be more to do this - like maybe he was drunk or high at the time of the act,
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High on? Pretty sure smoking a joint isn't going to push you into killing yourself. From your comment I'm guessing you don't drink or have ever taken a drug though.

No drug is going to make someone kill themselves bud. Its the underlying problems.
 
dr.kevin said:
He probably would have gotten just 1 year in a minimum sec prison.
He took the cheap way out.

Millions of academic journals freed = no big deal.
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13 felony counts? He was looking at 35-50 years. It wasn't JSTOR or MIT pressing charges, it was the government. The case would likely take years and bankrupted him in the process.
 
RSS feeds is something that I would like to see more of....atleast in the sense of business communications with employees that are constantly on the move. When password protected, it is a very good way to send work orders to service techs in the field. It doesn't have to be seen as strictly for relaying news or site updates. RSS can be expanded in so many other ways.

As for Reddit:
I have no use for it.

As for the man himself:
I have nothing to say.
 
haste. said:
High on? Pretty sure smoking a joint isn't going to push you into killing yourself. From your comment I'm guessing you don't drink or have ever taken a drug though.

No drug is going to make someone kill themselves bud. Its the underlying problems.
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I have smoked pot, had friends who smoked a lot of pot, and considering the things I thought were a good idea when I or they were high, I can see someone in a really shitty situation committing suicide. If you suddenly don't feel much pain and cant see the consequences of your actions, your are going to be more likely to do something you will regret.

So while it is generally true that a drug doesn't make someone kill themselves, it can definitely push someone over the edge.
 
leeleatherwood said:
good, reddit sucks anyways.
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I decided to see what was being said on reddit/imgur about this, and the conspiracy theories and idealistic liberalism almost made me want to commit suicide after seeing how many of these fucktards can vote.
 
ocellaris said:
So someone who was trying to make people accountable for their actions killed himself because he couldn't handle being accountable for his own illegal actions?

No years shed here.
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You know. Freeing a slave was once illegal.

What you think is a clever way to perpetuate your sociopathic views is quite transparent.
 
He was the type of person that knew what was going on, knew it was corrupt, and wanted to change it. The government despises people like that, because they're all about getting total control of everyone. I never heard of him till now but from what I've been reading he was a true freedom fighter and will be missed. We need more people like him.
 
Red Squirrel said:
He was the type of person that knew what was going on, knew it was corrupt, and wanted to change it. The government despises people like that, because they're all about getting total control of everyone. I never heard of him till now but from what I've been reading he was a true freedom fighter and will be missed. We need more people like him.
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Real freedom fighters are willing to go down for their cause and will fight like the hell the entire time.
 
He was likely facing in order:
1) Financial ruin
2) Loss of freedom in a "pound me in the butt penitentiary" until he had gray hair
3) An end to everything he had been working on and toward

Its hard to imagine that feeling of failure and helplessness if you haven't fought so hard to achieve something in the first place.

It doesn't hurt to fall from the floor, but it must sting like a bitch when you've climbed to great heights.

Oh well, its a cultural thing I suppose. It was considered very honorable for a ship captain to go down with his ship or a Japanese general to commit ritual suicide if he failed, and actually quite cowardly if they wanted to live in defeat/captivity.
 
Aaron Swartz keynote - "How we stopped SOPA"

Just so we remember he at least was active behind his computer. Not just complaining, undermining others, and shrugging off peoples life choices because of ignorance. Guess the saying good guys die young does seem to have some merit to it. RIP human.

 
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