I’ve talked about Aaron’s case before, how it represents (represented) an obscene overreach on the part of a government pushing an agenda of systematic control over the internet and information technology. How it reflected a popular paranoia of the technologically gifted that you can see promoted in any film about “hackers” made in the last 30 years. I should have been louder.
I didn’t know Aaron. I dearly wish I had. Those who did know him are broken-hearted and upset and angry and far more eloquent than me. You should read what they have to say. I have linked to a few below, but there are so many more.
And you should be angry, too. You should tell people that what happened, this case, was wrong. You should believe that we can do so much fucking better.
Larry Lessig’s Prosecutor as bully
Cory Doctorow’s RIP Aaron Swartz
Alex Stamos’s The truth about Aaron Swartz’s ‘Crimes’
danah boyd’s Processing the loss of Aaron Swartz
Ethan Zuckerman’s Goodbye Aaron
Quinn Norton’s My Aaron Swartz, whom I loved