[Solar-general] Show Your Support For Aaron | Demand Progress

[Nicolás Reynolds]

= Show Your Support For Aaron
http://act.demandprogress.org/sign/support_aaron/

*WEDNESDAY MORNING UPDATE:* The mainstream coverage of Aaron's arrest has
turned in his favor -- and public support for him is an important part of the
story. ** Here's a sampling of recent articles:

BOSTON GLOBE:Â * By yesterday afternoon, however, Swartz had received an
outpouring of support from colleagues and friends who took to blogs and
websites to defend his work* and maintain that the charges against him are
heavy-handed. More than 15,000 people had signed a letter of support for Swartz
on the website Demand Progress.org

HUFFINGTON POST:Â  *JSTOR's the one that should be in prison, man, for locking
up knowledge.*

NEW YORK TIMES: A respected Harvard researcher who also is an Internet folk
hero has been arrested in Boston on charges related to computer hacking, *which
are based on allegations that he downloaded articles that he was entitled to
get free.*

AMERICAN PROSPECT:* It's easy to forget that there's something at all
controversial or oppositional about accessing information, or that some people
really, really want data to be free -- and others don't.* Open data has been
mainstreamed. Whatever hacker-culture roots the free information movement might
have are subsumed by the idea that simply everyone agrees that data is meant to
be free, and the struggle is over the mechanics of freeing it. That's never
really been true, as Swartz's case makes plain.

BOSTON GLOBE: [Attorney Jerry] Cohen said the use of criminal charges here is
the latest in what has been a government trend to prosecute such cases, which
he described as taking “a sledgehammer to drive a thumb tack.'  'It might be
taking too big a weapon,’’ he said. *“It’s intended to terrorize the person
who’s indicted and others who might be thinking of the same thing.'*

*---
*

*ORIGINAL POST:*Â  Shocking news: *Moments ago former Demand Progress Executive
Director Aaron Swartz was indicted by the US government.* As best as we can
tell, he is being charged with allegedly downloading too many journal articles
from the Web. The government contends that downloading so many journal articles
constitutes felony  computer hacking and should be punished with time in
prison.  We disagree.

The charges are made all the more senseless by the fact that the alleged victim
has settled any claims against Aaron, explained they've suffered no loss or
damage, and asked the government not to prosecute.

James Jacobs, the Government Documents Librarian at Stanford University --
where Aaron did undergraduate work -- denounced the arrest: "Aaron's
prosecution undermines academic inquiry and democratic principles," Jacobs
said. "It's incredible that the government would try to lock someone up for
allegedly looking up articles at a library."


 References:
   1. http://demandprogress.org/mission
   2. http://demandprogress.org/people
   3. http://demandprogress.org/campaigns
   4. http://blog.demandprogress.org/
   5. http://demandprogress.org/donate
   6. http://demandprogress.org/
   7. http://facebook.com/share.php?u=http://act.demandprogress.org/sign/support_aaron/%3Fsource=fb
   8. http://twitter.com/share?url=http://act.demandprogress.org/act/support_aaron/%3Freferring_akid%3D.207600.vVKFrS%26source%3Dtyp-tw&text=Breaking%3A%20Feds%20indict%20Demand%20Progress%27s%20Aaron%20Swartz%20for%20downloading%20too%20many%20journal%20articles%3A&via=demandprogress
   9. http://facebook.com/share.php?u=http://act.demandprogress.org/sign/support_aaron/%3Fsource=fb
  10. http://twitter.com/share?url=http://act.demandprogress.org/act/support_aaron/%3Freferring_akid%3D.207600.vVKFrS%26source%3Dtyp-tw&text=Breaking%3A%20Feds%20indict%20Demand%20Progress%27s%20Aaron%20Swartz%20for%20downloading%20too%20many%20journal%20articles%3A&via=demandprogress
  11. http://demandprogress.org/privacy
  12. http://demandprogress.org/contact
  13. http://demandprogress.org/press
  14. http://demandprogress.org/

-- 
Salud!
Nicolás Reynolds,
xmpp:fauno en kiwwwi.com.ar
omb:http://identi.ca/fauno

OTR: C0CB1F0F 01DB5E18 2D634C2A A4626858 E7C7C3A2

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"Freedom [...] is messy" ~ Eben Moglen
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