Aaron Swartz would have been 36 today.
Aaron committed suicide after being sentenced to 35 years in prison by US authorities for transferring and sharing scientific articles from JSTOR.
Aaron committed suicide after being sentenced to 35 years in prison by US authorities for transferring and sharing scientific articles from JSTOR.
Enabling access to knowledge was one of his main goals in life, as confirmed by many projects he undertook:
He and his colleagues started a digital library in 2007 openlibrary.org with the goal of becoming an open catalogue of all works that have ever been published.
He and his colleagues started a digital library in 2007 openlibrary.org with the goal of becoming an open catalogue of all works that have ever been published.
More than 2.5 million books are freely available on it today.
He helped with the development of RSS and Markdown and Creative Commons licensing, all of which today plays a central role in the creation and distribution of content on the Internet.
He helped with the development of RSS and Markdown and Creative Commons licensing, all of which today plays a central role in the creation and distribution of content on the Internet.
Aaron is also recognized as one of the co-founders of the Reddit network and is one of the authors of the Guerilla Manifesto for free access (pc. if/gmanzof).
Swartz also fought for transparency and against corruption and censorship. In addition to coordinating protests and actions against internet censorship, he set up a platform SecureDrop securedrop.org which enables anonymous and safe communication for whistleblowers.
Federal prosecutors wanted to make an example out of his case, so despite the lack of evidence they wrote an indictment demanding 35 years in prison and 1 million dollars in prison. Days after prosecutors rejected his contract offer, Aaron committed suicide.
Limiting access to knowledge limits the development of the whole society. Free sharing and free access to content should be everyone's rights.
I had the honour of interacting with Aaron once. It was brief exchange through messages nothing personal, but I think of him often and thankful for how he opened the internet up for me. Every time you open a free PDF online to get your next hot take itβs thanks to men like him.
In the interest of of clarification:
No today is not Aaronβs birthday, his mother marked his birthday a couple of weeks ago.
Those playing semantics over his trial; he received 13 felonies carried up to 50 years: rollingstone.com
No today is not Aaronβs birthday, his mother marked his birthday a couple of weeks ago.
Those playing semantics over his trial; he received 13 felonies carried up to 50 years: rollingstone.com
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