MIT Refused to Accept Swartz Plea Bargain, Lawyer Says
A lawyer for Aaron Swartz -- the 26-year-old programmer and open-Internet activist who reportedly committed suicide Friday under pressure from threat of prosecution -- says MIT refused to endorse a deal that would have granted Swartz probation or deferred prosecution.
A lawyer for Aaron Swartz — the 26-year-old programmer and open-Internet activist who reportedly committed suicide Friday under pressure from threat of prosecution — says MIT refused to endorse a deal that would have granted Swartz probation or deferred prosecution.
JSTOR, the academic paper archive from which Swartz downloaded millions of articles in the act for which he was indicted, accepted the plea bargain, said attorney Marty Weinberg. MIT owned the computer closet from which Swartz downloaded the files.
An article published by The Boston Globe suggests the prosecution, led by Massachusetts’ U.S. Attorney Carmen Ortiz, would have accepted the deal had MIT signed off on it.
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Swartz and his lawyers were not looking for a free pass. They had offered to accept a deferred prosecution or probation, so that if Swartz pulled a stunt like that again, he would end up in prison.
Marty Weinberg, who took the case over from Good, said he nearly negotiated a plea bargain in which Swartz would not serve any time. He said JSTOR signed off on it, but MIT would not.
“There were subsets of the MIT community who were profoundly in support of Aaron,” Weinberg said. That support did not override institutional interests.
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On Jan. 6, Brian Knappenberger, director of the buzz-magnet documentary "The Internet's Own Boy," sat down with Boing Boing's Xeni Jardin in Los Angeles at the Annenberg Space for Photography to talk about his iconic subject, Aaron Swartz, and the impact of his life's work and legacy.
Journals like Science and other paid subscription sources should make their content available to the public for free.
With his Mayday PAC, the Harvard legal scholar and civil libertarian has emerged as the chief executor of Aaron Swartz's vision of a free, creative and open America in the digital age.
A champion of the Internet and governmental reform is celebrated around the world Saturday. His suicide -- committed under a threat of prosecution -- did not end the fight for his causes.
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