Thank you. He was a sick man who was charged and awaiting trial. If he had not broken into MIT and accessed and downloaded the journals somewhere else would he have still been faced with a criminal penalty? If he had not broken into MIT and accessed and downloaded the journals somewhere else would he have still been faced with a criminal penalty? card classic compact. Hot New Top Rising. ELI5: What did Aaron Swartz do that was "illegal"? He can check out as many books as he wants, right? But in order to check out those books, he had to go behind the desk, which was a no-no. We air an address of Swartz’s from last May where he speaks about the battle to defeat the Stop Online Piracy Act, or SOPA — a campaign he helped lead. The reason the government went after him so harshly is because. Even though that's their job, and it should be free, they made you pay. This question is asked out of respect and me trying to gain knowledge on the happenings of his life and death. I nearly cried at parts. Rising. Schwartz violated that in a few ways. I've been a heavy internet user for over half my life, and I still have no idea how RSS works in the slightest, or how to set it up. This is probably more of a question for r/outoftheloop, but I have a feeling this post is intended to spark political conversation. Reddit merged with Swartz’s company, Infogami between November 2005-January 2006. Online petitions and a few Congresspeople making noise is not the same thing as actually being wrongful. Aaron Swartz. Young Internet openness activist facing hacking charges takes his own life. You know this website you're on? You see Aaron thought that information should be very free. Aaron Swartz Suicide: Reddit Co-Founder Dead At 26. Explain Like I'm Five is the best forum and archive on the internet for layperson-friendly explanations. When did the "hacking" begin? 1 / 8. It's like if you want to make a sandwich, but normally you'd have to go to a bread store, a meat store, a cheese store, and a vegetable store. Aaron also did something that made some people pretty mad. Imagine if each time you asked your teacher a question you had to pay a quarter. Aaron Swartz Cory Doctorow Chelsea Manning Global World Old Person Edward Snowden State Government. What was the centre piece of their prosecution? Way to bury the lede there. Swartz made a huge impact on the Internet community. I'll actually try to explain this like you're five, because that doesn't ever seem to happen on here anymore. He helped to make a thing called "RSS" which helps people learn all the stuff they want to without going to all the different websites that that takes. So he went to MIT to access JSTOR, basically a virtual library of science, and went "out of bounds" according to MIT. So what happened is that Aaron got in trouble with JSTOR, the library, and with MIT, who is pretty much the librarian. Aaron was a big part of it at the very beginning. Swartz's title and role re: Reddit is an object of much controversy. This has been batted around for years but everyone involved (even Aaron when he was still alive) has stated Aaron's start-up Infogami was merged with Reddit under the banner of Not a Bug. Hot. Aaron Swartz - Reddit r/ aaronswartz. Sad news. But, even though all of this information should have been free, they charged people for it. This whole thing was very scary for Aaron. These folk jump to the conclusion that he would have been found guilty and that he would have served 35 years. We wanted him to stay around much longer than he did, and now we want to make sure that nothing like what happened to Aaron will happen to anyone else again. It was a special kind of sad that doesn't go away with a tight hug from mom, so it was especially hard to deal with. MIT was a little slower though, and didn't say much. The downloading or the breaking and entering? NEW YORK — After reports of Aaron Swartz’s apparent suicide circulated around the Internet this weekend, investigators found evidence of foul play. In Aaron Swartz's own words from May 2007 ... Reddit was founded in June 2005. Swartz then became an equal owner of the resulting company, Not A Bug. New comments cannot be posted and votes cannot be cast, More posts from the explainlikeimfive community. She actually started it, but you're the one that made the amazing sculpture out of it (with help from your friends, of course). abdullahkhalids 81 days ago. He then merged with Reddit in November. Not even close to correct. 7. These are subscription based journals and he did not have the authority to do any of it. Surveillance shot that ruined tragic Reddit co-founder Aaron Swartz's life: Moment he was caught breaking into MIT archive in sting that left him facing 30 years in jail. He thought that the work that scientists did at colleges should be seen by everyone! Press question mark to learn the rest of the keyboard shortcuts. CAMBRIDGE, MA – AUGUST 31: Business partners Aaron Swartz, left, and Simon Carstensen, right, have a working lunch outside in Cambridge, Friday, Aug. 31, 2007. The issue was handled so out of the bounds of normal decency that it was brought to Congress and Eric Holder, Attorney General at the time, said it was a good use of prosecutorial discretion. Aaron Swartz, the late digital rights activist and hacker, did not kill himself because he was depressed, according to his girlfriend. Aaron was then later charged with two counts of wire fraud, and 11 violations of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, which came with a cumulative penalty of up-to $1 million in fines, 35 years in prison, supervised release, asset forfeiture and restitution. But some people ignore that bit. What was the thing that caused The Federal Government to come after Aaron Swartz? He was involved early on at Reddit (his company was bought a few months after Reddit was founded by Alexis and Steve), which has in 7 years basically become "the front page of the Internet". Kinds Of People. On a related note, this is probably an unpopular opinion, but I always took ELI5 to mean "please explain this in a very simple, straightforward manner, one that does not assume the reader has any prior information" and not necessarily "literally explain like i'm five with metaphors that refer to play doh and your mommy. This is beautiful. Time travel request. The librarian didn't answer as quickly though, so the cops stuck around and kept asking Aaron questions and checking through his pockets for stuff. What is true is that Aaron helped to shape and mold and make this website what it is today. A graphic available on the website instead declares that Reddit was founded in 2005 by Steve Huffman (who continues to serve as CEO) and Alexis Ohanian. The reason the government went after him so harshly is because he has been politically active and has founded advocacy groups and created software to assist whistleblowers with anonymously sending information to the media. Some people think it was because he was so sad that he just wanted it to go away. Murderers of Aaron Swartz tried to disguise his death as a suicide. Join. Anyway I just wanted to say that Aron Schwartz had made a contribution to the world that affected people's lives for the better and I appreciate him for that. This makes people very sad and very angry, because Aaron was a very smart, very kind person. Yo if you’re a time traveler, pick this dude to give advance knowledge to so that at least one … Users of Reddit’s “Watch Reddit Die” community have spotted that the social network now excludes Aaron Swartz from the page listing the names of its co-founders. Aaron Swartz, a programmer and internet activist who cofounded an outlet that would eventually grow into social media powerhouse Reddit, last night committed suicide in NYC. Press question mark to learn the rest of the keyboard shortcuts, http://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/rqejz/redditors_who_are_rich_net_worth_1_million_how/c48e239. “An Incrdible Soul” (Aaron Swartz) Watch his incredible speech: “Freedom to Connect” “Cyber activist and computer programmer Aaron Swartz took his life on Friday at the age of 26. Swartz made a huge impact on the Internet community. Over 6 years on antidepressants now and it's like night and day. Basically, what was it in the views of the prosecution that required such a punitive sentence? Everyone's different and I'm not going to pretend to have the answers to the questions he left behind but typically the longer you think about suicide, the more comfortable you become with the idea, and if you have depression that remains untreated long enough, you're almost looking for a straw to break the camel's back. Because he did that with a tremendous number of documents, he tripped the $5,000 minimum (18 USC 1040(a)(4)) a number of times. But some acknowledgement of the other early people, including Aaron Swartz (who I believe was nominally considered a co-founder), might've been appropriate. Swartz spent the last two years fighting federal hacking charges. DEVELOPING REDDIT. Quinn Norton, Freelance Journalist And Swartz's Close Friend "We used to have a fight about how much the internet would grieve if he died. This has been batted around for years but everyone involved (even Aaron when he was still alive) has stated Aaron's start-up Infogami was merged with Reddit under the banner of Not a Bug. But in order to check out those books, he had to go behind the desk, which was a no-no. In this unpublished email exchange from 2009, Swartz … Fuck you man. He created one of two startups that combined to form Reddit.Before Reddit, when he was 14, Swartz co-wrote RSS 1.0. There are a lot of people talking about it now though, because if the cops hadn't been so mean to Aaron, he'd probably still be alive today. Reddit co-founder and co-creator of RSS feed Aaron Swartz died two days ago at the age of 26. On Friday, Aaron hung himself. Aaron Swartz, young Internet innovator, committed suicide Friday Swartz helped create RSS, founded company that later merged with Reddit Analyst: Swartz's biggest impact may … Technology. Aaron Swartz, an early Reddit staffer and founder of the open-web activist group Demand Progress, committed suicide on Friday at the age of 26, touching off an. Aaron did some more stuff, too. Aaron Hillel Swartz (November 8, 1986 – January 11, 2013) was an American computer programmer, entrepreneur, writer, political organizer, and Internet hacktivist.He was involved in the development of the web feed format RSS, the Markdown publishing format, the organization Creative Commons, and the website framework web.py, and joined the social news site Reddit six months after its founding. card. I only started using reddit recently, i have come across it before but didn't really know how to use it. Aaron Swartz. Remembering Aaron Swartz. What I mean is that which was the bigger issue for the law authorities? Well that sure did make some law-people mad. Then the US Attorney's office came in. New comments cannot be posted and votes cannot be cast, More posts from the explainlikeimfive community. Aaron Swartz was a truly beautiful person. A lot of people are willing to point fingers at the authorities who supposedly harassed him, but people have survived worse without hanging themselves... this is not being said as a criticism of him at all, I just think there's more to this than "cops being mean". Yeah, I think it's accurate to say "Reddit was founded in 2005 by two college friends." WTF, man? Thoughts & Ideas. Thank you in advance. I won't speculate about whether someone else would have received any more leniency. RIP Aaron, you will be missed and remembered.” — Redditor iamadogforreal “Swartz … Quinn Norton, Freelance Journalist And Swartz's Close Friend "We used to have a fight about how much the internet would grieve if he died. He was a thorn in the backside of the Obama administration and DNC for a while so they attempted to make an example out of him. The issue was handled so out of the bounds of normal decency that it was brought to Congress and Eric Holder, Attorney General at the time, said it was a good use of prosecutorial discretion. Police say 26-year-old Aaron Swartz, a co-founder of the social news and entertainment website Reddit, killed himself in his Brooklyn apartment. Didn't he make any money off RSS or Reddit or anything else? Maybe I missed it, but did you touch on the prior history of suicidal thoughts? So what happened is that Aaron got in trouble with JSTOR, the library, and with MIT, who is pretty much the librarian. Internet activist Aaron Swartz in a San Francisco bookshop in 2008, five years before his suicide. ", I like how you made RSS into the Internet's fridge. Aaron also entered the program separately, trying to found Infogami. Aaron Swartz was facing a possible sentence to decades in jail and a $1 million fine over the alleged theft of journal articles with intent to post them online. Remembering Aaron Swartz. He went somewhere he wasn't supposed to go, and went there to try to get all this information and science from JSTOR, which he was actually allowed to do. In 2006 Aaron was part of a small team that sold Reddit to Condé Nast , Wired's parent company. NEW YORK — After reports of Aaron Swartz’s apparent suicide circulated around the Internet this weekend, investigators found evidence of foul play. It was a smart move by the police to do this, but a very big trap for Aaron to fall into. Aaron Swartz, the late digital rights activist and hacker, did not kill himself because he was depressed, according to his girlfriend. I won't get too much into details but the short version is this: The Computer Fraud and Abuse Act makes it a crime to either fraudulently obtain, circumvent, or exceed the access granted to someone on a password protected system (18 U.S. Code § 1030). Aaron Swartz Suicide: Reddit Co-Founder Dead At 26. Aaron Hillel Swartz (8 Kasım 1986, Chicago - 11 Ocak 2013, New York), Amerikalı bilgisayar programcısı, bilişimci, yazar ve aktivist.. 13 yaşında ArsDigita Ödülü'ne layık görülen Swartz, henüz 14 yaşındayken RSS adı verilen internet besleme biçimini gerçekleştiren ekipte yer almış, 15 yaşında ise IEEE Intelligent Systems dergisinde hakemli bir makale yayınlamıştı. Well actually he was a multi-millionaire from selling reddit...... EDIT: he even said so himself, see: http://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/rqejz/redditors_who_are_rich_net_worth_1_million_how/c48e239. Smart People. Posted by 8 hours ago. I would guess the breaking and entering as Jstor themselves did not wish to push to for prosecution (and were in fact subpoenaed into giving evidence). Lot of really cool things purpose of eli5 press question mark to learn the rest of library! And a few Congresspeople making noise is not the same thing as actually being wrongful cops that would. 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