Re:Why Am I So Upset About Aaron Swartz's Suicide?
by toyg on Monday January 14, 2013 @07:31AM
(#5054364)
35+ years in prison for "checking out too many books at once" is not a travesty?
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Re:Why Am I So Upset About Aaron Swartz's Suicide?
by emkemp on Monday January 14, 2013 @07:49AM
(#5054411)
According to the Wall Street Journal[1], the government would probably have asked for 7 years, and a plea bargain offer was made to reduce to 6-8 months in prison. The 35+ years was the potential maximum, would have required conviction on all charges, and ultimately would have required an independent trial judge to "throw the book at him."
[1] http://online.wsj.com/article_email/SB1000142412788732458150...
And "checking out too many books at once" = allegedly hacking into a third party network to download 4 million articles from 1,000 academic journals without paying the required fees.
Re:Why Am I So Upset About Aaron Swartz's Suicide?
by chris_wot on Monday January 14, 2013 @08:55AM
(#5054625)
7 years, for downloading articles that should probably be in the public domain? Well, that's not prosecutorial overreach at all.
Re:Why Am I So Upset About Aaron Swartz's Suicide?
by mpyne on Monday January 14, 2013 @11:05AM
(#5055152)
6-8 months is what the prosecutors asked for, remember?
According to Lessig that wasn't even the sticking point for Aaron: Aaron didn't want to plead guilty to a felony, he wanted lesser charges.
Re:Why Am I So Upset About Aaron Swartz's Suicide?
by chris_wot on Tuesday January 15, 2013 @10:01AM
(#5060384)
Allow me to rephrase that then: 6-8 months, for downloading articles that should probably be in the public domain? Well, that's not prosecutorial overreach at all.
Re:Why Am I So Upset About Aaron Swartz's Suicide?
by toyg on Monday January 14, 2013 @08:57AM
(#5054633)
"allegedly hacking into [...] without paying the required fees
"Crime against 'intellectual property', goddammit! Let him rot in prison, I say! That content was paid-for by tax dollars, and nobody lost a dime because he never redistributed it, but so what? It's the principle: if you break property laws, you should always go to prison."