Articles paid for by the public through grants btw
Never Forget
Submitted 11 months ago by fossilesque@mander.xyz to science_memes@mander.xyz
https://mander.xyz/pictrs/image/5fc5b23d-fb22-4fa8-962d-9f1e5eceb0b4.jpeg
Comments
grandma@sh.itjust.works 11 months ago
Allero@lemmy.today 11 months ago
With authors often paying for open access publications literally out of their very own money, not just grants.
hedgehogging_the_bed@lemmy.world 11 months ago
Not at the time this happened. Aaron’s case was one of the motivating factors that led to the Open Access publication movement gaining enough traction that authors could publish that way. JSTOR access is paid for and administered on college campuses by libraries and librarians as a whole field felt terrible both about the paid publication system and the way Aaron was treated. As a community of professionals, the Librarian and Information Science community pushed very hard for the adoption of Open Access publishing into the Academic community.
deweydecibel@lemmy.world 11 months ago
He was not sentenced to 35 years. The trial hadn’t finished. 35 years was the maximum possible sentence.
GluWu@lemm.ee 11 months ago
35 yearsax, plea for 1/2 that was rejected. He was going to get the book thrown at him to make an example. 5 years minimum but I wouldn’t doubt 10-20.
The rapist traitor that headed a insurrection on Jan 6 2021 has never spent a day in jail and is still the frontrunner for president to be legally elected in 2024.
Dasus@lemmy.world 11 months ago
still the frontrunner for president to be legally elected in 2024.
The front runner? Really?
I’m not being sarcastic. Im genuinely interested, but can’t be arsed to start going through polls because it’d mean going through the biases of the pollers.
charonn0@startrek.website 11 months ago
plea for 1/2 that was rejected
The rejected plea was for 6 months.
mozz@mbin.grits.dev 11 months ago
He committed the idealist's perennial sin: He thought that because the system is bullshit, it's okay not to play ball with it.
"Hey this is a bunch of crap. I can be guilty or innocent, and the right move is always to plead guilty even if I didn't do a damn thing wrong, because if I try to fight the case they're gonna tack on a ton of new charges and they almost always win and I might go away for most of my life."
"Preach."
"I'm gonna plead not guilty because I didn't do anything wrong."
"No no no no no that is not the way to reform the system no no no that is a bad mistake"
Aaron Swartz was a fuckin hero. Read his posthumous book, it is wonderful. But the same idealism and faith that led him to the good thing he did in his painfully short time here, also led him not to understand how to engage with the US federal government and keep your skin fully intact.
captainlezbian@lemmy.world 11 months ago
Yeah. Don’t talk to cops. Get a sympathetic/movement lawyer. And this is fucking crucial, do what they say.
A lot of idealistic people understand that you can sell your soul piecemeal and are always in danger of it. But they don’t really understand what not giving up your values is vs not doing what’s smart. You take the plea deal unless you have to rat someone out. And also you don’t commit crimes you aren’t comfortable with the consequences of.
Tb0n3@sh.itjust.works 11 months ago
For bulk downloading science journals he had access to.
refalo@programming.dev 11 months ago
for breaking and entering*
and DoS
xor@infosec.pub 11 months ago
also he worked with wikileaks… i think he was named as a source posthumously…
he also wrote an open source system of servers that function exactly like wikileaks submission system (actually i think it is, given clues as to how it operates… like the manning chat logs)
dead drop is now called “open drop” and powers every major newspaper’s leak submission system…he was murdered.
not only the did it make no sense, given the 6 month plea bargain option, but he was an outspoken activist and would’ve at least left a note… in the form of some post online…
Bruhh@lemmy.world 11 months ago
If I remember correctly, it wasn’t even illegal since these scientific articles should have been public to begin with because they used public funds.
SparrowRanjitScaur@lemmy.world 11 months ago
That may be so, but IIRC he was charged with breaking into their networking room and illegally tapping into their network to get the articles:
RGB3x3@lemmy.world 11 months ago
Well that’s definitely burying the lede from the OP.
It wasn’t the sharing part they had a problem with, it was the B&E and hacking.
K0W4LSK1@lemmy.dbzer0.com 11 months ago
That also may be so, but 35 years is fucked up for that. pretty sure child porn first time offenders is like 15 to 30 so hacking MIT for stuff that should have been free gets you more jail time then a first CP offence. OK thats fucked up
rimjob_rainer@discuss.tchncs.de 11 months ago
I hacked my highschool servers when I was young and shared the upcoming exams, so everyone could prepare for them. Someone told the authorities, all I got was some extra exercise. Sure it wasn’t MIT, but still 35 years is ridiculous, even a year of prison would have been ridiculous.
ivofcups@lemmy.world 11 months ago
Paradoxically, that’s not how science jourals work. There are no difference between public or prívate funds in this regard.
Omniraptor@lemm.ee 11 months ago
Shout out to Alexandra elbakyan. She continues the great work by running sci-hub and libgen, but lives safely out of reach of the american criminal “justice” system 💔
Hubi@lemmy.world 11 months ago
He didn’t even share them as far as I know, he just downloaded them. And the trial hadn’t started yet when he committed suicide.
deweydecibel@lemmy.world 11 months ago
He didn’t get the chance to share them because he was caught downloading them.
LodeMike@lemmy.today 11 months ago
Downloading isn’t a crime, is it?
ReallyActuallyFrankenstein@lemmynsfw.com 11 months ago
He was being charged under the CFAA, a hacking criminal statute that prohibits unauthorized access to computer systems. It was controversially being stretched to cover Aaron’s conduct that violated TOS by an ambitious prosecutor.
CaptObvious@literature.cafe 11 months ago
No, but he obviously felt that JSTOR could persuade a court to make it one. Poor kid.
Imgonnatrythis@sh.itjust.works 11 months ago
You wouldn’t download a car would you??
LadyAutumn@lemmy.blahaj.zone 11 months ago
Oil CEOs pay fines for bringing about a global climate catastrophe. Fascist politicians are given slaps on the wrist for an attempted coup d’etat. Government officials open commit gross violations of privacy and suffer no consequences.
But a guy hacks a university network and downloads a hoard of scientific articles that should have been freely accessible to begin with and he gets 35 years in prison.
lemmeee@sh.itjust.works 11 months ago
Remember Kim Dotcom? He had a file sharing website and the police raided his house with guns like he was a dangerous criminal. There is a video of it on YouTube.
PM_Your_Nudes_Please@lemmy.world 11 months ago
Honestly I had forgotten about the whole MegaUpload stuff.
Given, Kim Dotcom had a long history of being a trash person before the MegaUpload raid; Trading in stolen credit card info, embezzlement, black-hat hacking, etc… But he definitely didn’t deserve to get swatted just because he hosted a site that was popular with media pirates. The police used his prior convictions as justification for their heavy-handed tactics. But the reality is that they likely would have gone in with SWAT even if he had a squeaky clean record beforehand.
Hackworth@lemmy.world 11 months ago
There’s a recent Radiolab episode about those that have taken up his mantle and the impact he’s had on scientific publishing.
charonn0@startrek.website 11 months ago
That’s not exactly what happened.
Aaron committed suicide before his case went to trial, and so he was never convicted let alone sentenced. 35 years was never even likely; had it gone to trial there’s every reason to think he’d have been acquitted outright, or at worst given a slap on the wrist. Not that he should have even been charged, of course.
intensely_human@lemm.ee 11 months ago
Well now I’ve got two competing claims, and I can’t believe either one until I see the authoritative history on it
thisisnotgoingwell@programming.dev 11 months ago
There’s a documentary on YouTube called “The internet’s own boy”, if you want to learn more. Basically, he was offered a 6 month plea, but he would be a convicted felon, and basic logic/morality tells you that you shouldn’t plead guilty to a crime that you didn’t commit. However, the justice is very imperfect, and often people plead guilty for reduced sentencing even if they’re not guilty. He stood on principle until his legs gave out. they were already in millions spent in attorney fees. Not a shred of justice can be found in how Aaron’s story ended.
ShepherdPie@midwest.social 11 months ago
Robert Evan’s did a Behind the Bastards episode on this back in December I believe.
ShepherdPie@midwest.social 11 months ago
Also JSTOR never wanted him prosecuted only to have the files deleted and call it a wash. It was MIT that supported prosecution and who called the fuzz in the first place.
KillingTimeItself@lemmy.dbzer0.com 11 months ago
i would say jstor are cunts, but actually it’s the US government that were being cunts here.
FiniteBanjo@lemmy.today 11 months ago
Law Enforcement and the Justice System have every responsibility to enforce laws as they were given, JSTOR pressed charges and the US Government offered Auron a plea deal to reduce his sentence to 6 months.
zik@lemmy.world 11 months ago
I thought there was a prosecutor who pursued this beyond all reasonable bounds, making Aaron’s life a living hell and driving him to suicide?
KillingTimeItself@lemmy.dbzer0.com 11 months ago
and the US government was almost definitely trying to make an example out of him: literally anybody who read the case details whatsoever.
vfye@toast.ooo 11 months ago
Only prosecuting district attorneys can chose to bring a crimial charge to court.*
*except in north carolina… for some reason they actually let victims prosecute.
muntedcrocodile@lemm.ee 11 months ago
He didn’t transfer or share he only downloaded.
Evrala@lemmy.world 11 months ago
It’s also likely that he was never intending to share them. One of the things he was looking to do is aquire a large dataset to analyze trends.
In other words, he was charged for entirely legit use.
muntedcrocodile@lemm.ee 11 months ago
I recon he was looking for a specific trend the us government really didn’t want him to prove they had been forcing.
koavf@lemmy.ml 11 months ago
He also was not sentenced. This post is misinformation.
fossphi@lemm.ee 11 months ago
I highly recommend watching the documentary on him, Internet’s own boy.
dylanmorgan@slrpnk.net 11 months ago
Behind the Bastards dedicated their last Christmas episode to Aaron as well: iheart.com/…/part-one-christmas-hero-episode-aaro…
Lianodel@ttrpg.network 11 months ago
Just for context for those who haven’t heard the podcast: the Christmas episodes often center around non-bastards. This is one of those. :P
Azzu@lemm.ee 11 months ago
Sagittarii@lemm.ee 11 months ago
Reddit could’ve been so good with him at the helm…
captainlezbian@lemmy.world 11 months ago
He likely wouldn’t’ve stayed. We’d be better off with him anyways. He was moving towards activism and politics. He’d probably either be a prisoner or a congressman by now. And like honestly, we could use a congressman like him.
PanArab@lemm.ee 11 months ago
The most infuriating thing was and still is the fact that some people justify the sentence and blame him for killing himself.
intensely_human@lemm.ee 11 months ago
Well killing oneself is always one’s own choice, but it’s terrible that he was given such a ridiculous sentence for no more than a copyright issue. Not even sure if he made money on the material, but even if he did he should have gotten maybe a fine, and imprisonment is just insane.
Rekorse@lemmy.dbzer0.com 11 months ago
He wasn’t sentenced, he died before he could go to trial or accept a plea deal, but there is record of a 6 month jail sentence being offered to him.
Kalysta@lemm.ee 11 months ago
He’s probably rolling in his grave at the enshittification of reddit now too
ikidd@lemmy.world 11 months ago
Judicially murdered by Carmen Ortiz.
Legend@lemmy.sdf.org 11 months ago
They got the wrong reddit founder .
(not that I wish that on spez even tho he is bad I don’t think he is that bad )
MovingThrowaway@hexbear.net 11 months ago
Eh mister “I will own slaves after the apocalypse” probably doesn’t deserve the grace
umbraroze@lemmy.world 11 months ago
The weirdest shit about this is that JSTOR apparently has a very expansive social media presence.
They have an official Tumblr account.
I had to follow it out of morbid curiosity.
FluffyPotato@lemm.ee 11 months ago
There’s a reason the EU doesn’t extradite their citizens to the US: the justice system is considered inhumane.
TheObviousSolution@lemm.ee 11 months ago
Frankly, I don’t think that was enough to make Aaron commit suicide. However, having close relations like Steve Huffman and Alexis Ohanian completely turn sour and blame him probably did, and I’m akin to believe they did given how hard they doubled down on “well, Aaron really wasn’t that great of a guy” narrative.
Simon@lemmy.dbzer0.com 11 months ago
Think I’m gonna be taking the solidarity approach pretty soon. Humanity is truly a cancer.
sfunk1x@lemmy.world 11 months ago
This is like the Oliver Stone science meme kind of fact.
chillbo_baggins@hexbear.net 11 months ago
I never heard of this guy before today. What a goat RIP AARON SCHWARTZ
retrieval4558@mander.xyz 11 months ago
There’s a good behind the bastards episode on him (a good guy holiday episode; he’s not a bastard)
absentbird@lemm.ee 11 months ago
He was one of the inventors of Reddit.
Fedizen@lemmy.world 11 months ago
he didn’t even share the articles did he? it was an “intent” crime.
Granixo@feddit.cl 11 months ago
Jesuschrist. 🤦♂️
koavf@lemmy.ml 11 months ago
Please don’t spread misinormation.
irreticent@lemmy.world 11 months ago
You can’t make a claim like that without elaborating why you think it’s misinormation [SIC].
AOCapitulator@hexbear.net 11 months ago
What about this is misinformation?
muntedcrocodile@lemm.ee 10 months ago
This is propaganda he got sucicided. And he didnt transfer or share scientific articles he simply downloaded them thats all. This poat is extremely damaging as its almost correct juat slightly shifting the commonly accepted reality of history. This is not the first time I’ve seen posts about him here doing a simmillar thing this raises the question who’s trying to rewrite history and what for?
index@sh.itjust.works 8 months ago
bits are not bugs
pewgar_seemsimandroid@lemmy.blahaj.zone 11 months ago
help, why does it looked photoshopped (aaron swartz)
riodoro1@lemmy.world 11 months ago
donald tr*mp gets 10 warnings for intimidating witnesses and indefinite trial postponement for hoarding snd most likely leaking classified documents.
octopus_ink@lemmy.ml 11 months ago
People keep trying to convince me it’s not evidence of two justice systems.
But it is.
WhatAmLemmy@lemmy.world 11 months ago
It’s evidence that we live in corporatocracies masquerading as “democracies”. The 0.1%, shielded by the liability protections of the corporations they own and armies of lobbyists, finance our politics, choose who ends up on the ballot, and shadow write most of our legislation and policies.
Trump is free because he is a part of that < 0.1%.
The Boeing execs who oversaw systemic fraud, lied to the FAA, and murdered 166 people ARE FREE AND RICH. Why? Because they are the 0.1%.
The IPCC hosts fossil fuelled climate summits in fossil fuel exporting countries, inviting fossil fuel corporations and lobbyists to attend — at a scientific conference about how to solve the crisis they created and profited from. Why? Because we live in corporatocracies.
fossphi@lemm.ee 11 months ago
I think this is a consequence of any (unregulated) capitalistic system in general. The system is founded on money, more money will give anyone more influence and power over the system
ininewcrow@lemmy.ca 11 months ago
It’s the subtle difference between a JUSTICE system and a LEGAL system.
One aims to maintain law and order in society in a fair and equal way regardless of one’s status or situation.
The other is a system gamed to benefit the richest and wealthiest individuals to get away with everything.
aberrate_junior_beatnik@midwest.social 11 months ago
At risk of sounding cringe, it’s evidence of one injustice system.
Schadrach@lemmy.sdf.org 11 months ago
Someone should look up the maximum sentence for what he’s been charged with. The current biggest hold-ups are not being able to make someone appear in multiple trials in different places simultaneously, and avoiding the appearance that the court is trying to interfere with an election.
You don’t want the court to not care about the appearance of interfering with elections, or else you’ll have the GoP trying to get Democrat politicians on dubious charges that they’ll definitely not be guilty of but will definitely bury them in scandal and prevent them from campaigning effectively.
deweydecibel@lemmy.world 11 months ago
For the record, Aaron Swartz never actually went to trial, nor was he “sentenced” to anything.
Federal prosecutors came after him with overzealous charges in an effort to make him accept a plea deal (they do that a lot), which he rejected. It would have gone to court where the feds would have had to justify the charges they were bringing.
But that never happened because he killed himself.
We don’t actually know how this all would have played out.
riodoro1@lemmy.world 11 months ago
The comment in OPs post is misleading but he did nevertheless kill himself because of the justice system trying to prosecute him for accessing science most likely funded by public money in the first place.
brbposting@sh.itjust.works 11 months ago
And will never know, selfishly speaking, the possible extent of his further contributions to society. Died at 26 after an incredible life already.
Besides his life, what else did they steal from us?
RIP Aaron
obinice@lemmy.world 11 months ago
Why are you censoring Donald Trump’s name? Is it a swear word now in your country?
We’re big girls here, we can take a little rude language, don’t worry :)
riodoro1@lemmy.world 11 months ago
I don’t know why but i just didn’t want to type that slur.