Aaron Swartz was a programmer and an internet freedom activist. He co-authored the RSS spec at age 14, and helped build Reddit, Creative Commons, Markdown syntax, Open Library, and more. But he was much more than the sum of his outstanding code contributions. He believed public information hidden behind unreasonable paywalls should be free, and fought to make it actually public.
In 2008, he wrote a script to download millions of federal court documents from the government's paywalled PACER database. In due time, he was caught by federal authorities, but the case was closed without filing charges. Aaron had violated the terms of service, but he had not broken the law as the documents were public property. The cache is now permanently hosted on the Internet Archive.
In late 2010, he started running a script to download the JSTOR archive, a digital library that locks millions of academic journals, papers, books, and primary sources behind expensive paywalls. JSTOR caught on, and started firewalling him. Aaron bypassed the firewalls by entering an unlocked utility closet in the basement of MIT's Building 16 and connected his laptop to the network switch, hiding it under a cardboard box. This did not end well.
MIT and JSTOR found the laptop and contacted the authorities, who turned this into a federal sting operation, and used a camera to catch Aaron in the act. Federal prosecutors and U.S. attorneys tried to make an example out of him. Instead of a simple trespass or civil suit, they charged him with multiple felonies including CFAA and wire fraud, threatening him with 35 years in prison and $1 million in fines (comparable to sentences for manslaughter, bank robbery, and worse crimes). Aaron rejected a plea deal that would brand him a felon.
After three years, Aaron was still facing trial and the full weight of the federal government. On January 11, 2013, he took his life. He was 26 years old.
Today, we pay tribute to a pioneering builder and thinker of the open web.
Some links:
Aaron's manifesto on freeing academic knowledge: https://ia600101.us.archive.org/1/items/GuerillaOpenAccessManifesto/Goamjuly2008.pdf
Aaron's weblogs: https://github.com/joshleitzel/rawthought/tree/master
An excellent documentary on Aaron Swartz: https://archive.org/details/TheInternetsOwnBoyTheStoryOfAaronSwartz
Aaron’s keynote “How we stopped SOPA”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fgh2dFngFsg
16 year old Aaron speaking at the launch of Creative Commons: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YpT_V-DB1JU