Anon Takes Down Government Site Over Aaron Swartz's Death

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sacre

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Jul 13, 2006
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"faced hacking charges"

Well stop hacking peoples stuff.

Its always sad to see someone take their own life, but this kid dug his own grave. Stop doing illegal shit and you'll be fine.
 

dark_wizzie

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[citation][nom]sacre[/nom]"faced hacking charges"Well stop hacking peoples stuff.Its always sad to see someone take their own life, but this kid dug his own grave. Stop doing illegal shit and you'll be fine.[/citation]
WTF is wrong with you? The magnitude of punishment did not balance according to what he did! A kid dies because people are computer-phobic. He would have gotten a lighter sentence if he killed somebody.

I stole a piece of candy when I was 6. Do I deserve 35 years in prision? Stop stealing shit and you'll be fine, you say...
 

sacre

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[citation][nom]dark_wizzie[/nom]WTF is wrong with you? The magnitude of punishment did not balance according to what he did! A kid dies because people are computer-phobic. He would have gotten a lighter sentence if he killed somebody.I stole a piece of candy when I was 6. Do I deserve 35 years in prision? Stop stealing shit and you'll be fine, you say...[/citation]

You know the risks.

I don't understand why someone, who is aware of the jailtime associated with such actions - still do it anyways then complains after they were caught that its "Ridiculous". They crank the jailtime to scare you away from doing it. This idiot decided to do it anyways, regardless of the risk and was caught.

We ALL assume we'll be that % that won't be caught, well, he was.

Thats that.
 

James296

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[citation][nom]sacre[/nom]"faced hacking charges"Well stop hacking peoples stuff.Its always sad to see someone take their own life, but this kid dug his own grave. Stop doing illegal shit and you'll be fine.[/citation]

must be nice seeing everything in Black and White
 
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Civil rights protesting was illegal. Should the protesters have just stayed home because they knew the risks? The guy downloaded academic papers, most of which were not even copyrighted, from a database that he had legal student access to. He faced 35 years because he allegedly wanted to distribute that information so that people would be better educated.
 
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I do not think anyone can say with a straight face that what this guy was doing was wrong (not illegal, just wrong). I don't think anyone can say with a straight face that what the prosecution was doing was right (not legal, but right). I don't think anyone can sit with a straight face and say that the companies in control of any copyright on the material the guy was attempting to distribute act more righteously than he did, and those companies wrote the law that he was being prosecuted under. See a problem? If you do not, then you are blind.
 
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sacre, you are totally right. We should have lynched Robin Hood- stealing from them fine rich folks to give to the nasty poor. Ghandi was a damn criminal- they should have punished him with death, not some pussy jail. Don't even get me started on Mother Teresa, with all her illegal border crossings she should have been in jail for at least a half century.
 

JamesSneed

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Intriguing video. To sum up the link from Chetou.

Threaten the president = 5 years prison max
Assault a Supreme Court Justice = 10 years prison max
Armed bank robbery = 20 prison years max
Help terrorist develop a nuclear weapon = 25 prison years max
Download educational documents violating vendors TOS = 35+ years prison
 

kingnoobe

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To be honest I'm on the fence with anon. I agree with some of the stuff they do, but just as much I think is absolute BS.

But either way this video was cool lol.
 

DRosencraft

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First, we should keep the guy's family in our thoughts and prayers. No parent, no matter what their child did, should not have to experience having to bury their child. I don't even favor the death penalty.

At the same time, I am in no way going to defend what Mr. Swartz did, nor the response given to his choice to end his life. 35 years is not an easy sentence, but there are thousands sitting in a jail cell for doing far less, and who get far less attention for it. 35 years is not the result of a single charge, it's the result of multiple charges compounded. He was facing multiple counts, and had not even had his trial yet. He may have not been found guilty on some of them, and then wouldn't have even faced the maximum. He was in plea negotiations, in which I believe the Massachusetts D.A was offering him a deal that would have netted him only 6 months in jail. MIT, the plaintiff in the case, was against the deal, which is their right as the victim of the alleged crime, so even if someone is angry about what happened to Mr. Swartz it should be anger at MIT for blocking the plea deal, not at the commission behind sentencing guidelines.

Each count only totaled a few months to a few years. When you're accused of dozens of counts of the same crime, eventually they stack up to a lot of time. He hacked MIT's computers, accessed and downloaded millions of files. He should have known at the time he was doing it what he would be facing if he got caught. He is not the first person to face charges on illegally hacking a computer. He could have easily found out what would happen, and everyone knows that hacking is a crime. You don't get to cry foul after-the-fact. It is a tragedy for Mr. Swartz's family that he took his own life. Even if convicted for the crime (which I have not heard any assertions he did not commit) he would have been out probably before he turned fifty due to good behavior if he kept out of trouble behind bars. He wouldn't have served in a maximum security facility, so he wouldn't have been with the murderers and gang-bangers that most think of when they think of prison. He could have done his time, got out, and gone on with his life after that. His fate is a tragedy. The response to that tragedy by the likes of Anonymous is nothing but cowardly, opportunistic, showboating, in an attempt to get people to pay attention to them by way of exploiting this young man's death. It is disgusting, and I hope they rot in prison for it.
 

blurr91

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[citation][nom]String em up[/nom]sacre, you are totally right. We should have lynched Robin Hood- stealing from them fine rich folks to give to the nasty poor. Ghandi was a damn criminal- they should have punished him with death, not some pussy jail. Don't even get me started on Mother Teresa, with all her illegal border crossings she should have been in jail for at least a half century.[/citation]

Correction: Robin Hood did not steal from the rich to give to the poor. Robin Hood took back what the government stole from the people and returned it to the rightful owners.
 
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While I do think the charges against him were absurd considering the material that was distributed, it was his choice and he made it. He wasn't murdered by the justice system, he killed himself. This case would've generated so much controversy that you can be certain he would've had the best lawyer money can buy (for free since this case would be all over the news) as well as the support from the American public. There is no way he would've ever been sentenced to 35 years. He probably would've had no jail time at all. Our legal system is not black and white, that is why we have trials.

If he really wanted to change things, he should have gone to trial. The outcome would've been in his favor and it would've been a major victory against unfair copyright laws. But, he cracked and killed himself. By the way I'm not trying to be mean, just trying to put this whole thing into perspective for a lot of people who are blaming "the system".
 
COULD have gotten 35 years, not got 35 years, therefore any discussion over the sentence is hypothetical, and always will be. The government did not kill him, he killed himself, period. Anon can talk all they want about the government killed him, but he did that to himself before he even went to trial, or got a sentence.

Is 35 years excessive for thing? Probably. He did STEAL and HACK MIT, and stole documents from a non-profit publishing journal. I don't even see a point in that. If you're going to hack, do it for something worthwhile, not some non-profit that charges 5 cents a page for hard research work done by people dedicated to their fields and the 5 cents covers the cost of publishing. Real big, worthy target to hack.

Everyone looks at like black and white., it was just documents. So what if someone robbed your mother at gunpoint and stole her password, and she was traumatized for life over it, and even had a heart attack. You would screaming for 35 years for the guy. But it was just a document he took right?
 

ikyung

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Seems like 90% of the people commenting on this has no idea what happened.

1) This man downloaded files from a PUBLIC website. The rule he broke was, on the TOA (Terms of Agreement) he was limited to downloading a certain amount. This being a public website, there was absolutely no files that contained any top-secret agenda.

2) He was charged with multiple counts of FELONY for breaking the TOA. Now, think about this for a second. Do any of you even read the TOA when you register to a website, game, or any software for that matter? I'll let that sink in for a minute.

3) The reason this case caused such an uproar was because the prosecutor had their own agenda and used this man for political issues. The politician working in this case wanted to seem like she had a strong stance against issues regarding hacking and other online policies to GATHER votes. So basically this man was used as a political asset so some retarded politician can get more votes in to stay in office.

Now, think about how this court case would have/could have affected you. If Aaron Swartz pleaded guilty to receive a reduced sentence, then there could be a chance that breaking a simple online Terms of Agreement can lead to felony charges against YOU. TERMS OF AGREEMENT. Remember? The 25 page thing that you don't even take a second glance at and just press the "accept" button so you can enjoy the contents of the actual product.

So please stop saying ignorant things like "derp derp don't break the law" because technically he didn't break the law. He broke a terms of agreement on a public website and was used as a political asset to garner votes from the public.
 

tobalaz

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This is so screwed up.
We live in a world where a CEO can bone employees, close the doors of the company, steal millions in pension and benefits from said employees, and get off with 5 years in Club Fed then keep the money while a kid who downloads music or videos gets millions in fines.
Scammers and identity thieves walk all the time unless they target a known athlete, CEO or high ranking government official.

Guess its ok to steal if you steal from those the government steals from all the time just so long as you're not stealing from the people lining the pockets of the government.

But seriously, 35 years for breaking a TOA? That shit should have been thrown out the window the second it happened. If anything there should have been a fine, but REALLY?
 
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