News for hackers. Stuff that matters.

A comment on US Attorney Chided Swartz On Day of Suicide. Parent comment

Re:US Attorney Chided Swartz On Day of Suicide by glesica on Sunday January 13, 2013 @02:40PM (#5051608)
He didn't kill someone with a knife, he put butter on his toast with a knife. There was literally no crime committed, certainly no crime worthy of federal prosecutors and decades of potential incarceration.

He downloaded a bunch of files using a publicly accessible computer network, from a web site that was available without authentication from that network. He didn't crack any passwords or encryption schemes, he didn't access any material he was supposed to pay for without paying, he simply didn't do anything to warrant the type of prosecution that was launched against him.

The article below explains a lot. What Aaron Swartz did was rude, not illegal.

http://unhandled.com/2013/01/12/the-truth-about-aaron-swartz...

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:US Attorney Chided Swartz On Day of Suicide by tedunangst on Sunday January 13, 2013 @03:27PM (#5051754)
Tell it to the jury. Sounds like a slam dunk acquittal.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:US Attorney Chided Swartz On Day of Suicide by glesica on Sunday January 13, 2013 @04:22PM (#5051899)
That's the wrong way to look at it. The process had wiped him out financially and almost certainly damaged his mental state. It doesn't matter if you're acquitted if you are punished before the trial even begins.
[ Parent | on HN ]