Re:Why Did the Justice System Target Aaron Swartz?
by tzs on Monday January 28, 2013 @01:36PM
(#5129866)
You need to look at it from MIT's perspective. The laptop in the closet was not an isolated incident. It was clearly connected to the person who had been abusing their open wireless access earlier. This person clearly knew his actions were not welcome.
I don't know anything about MIT culture other than what I've read, but people have told me it is similar to Caltech's culture. At Caltech, the most important rule is the Caltech honor code:
No member of the Caltech community shall take unfair
advantage of another member of the Caltech community.
This covers the sort of hacking which is traditional at Caltech (and I presume MIT). It means that you do no intentional harm, and you take responsibility for your actions, and you stop a particular hack if the parties you are asking catch you and tell you to stop.
If the Swartz incident had happened at Caltech then when it reached the laptop in the closet stage the conclusion would be that the intruder was almost certainly an outsider, not a member of the community. At that point it is appropriate to call in the outside authorities.
I don't know anything about MIT culture other than what I've read, but people have told me it is similar to Caltech's culture. At Caltech, the most important rule is the Caltech honor code:
This covers the sort of hacking which is traditional at Caltech (and I presume MIT). It means that you do no intentional harm, and you take responsibility for your actions, and you stop a particular hack if the parties you are asking catch you and tell you to stop.If the Swartz incident had happened at Caltech then when it reached the laptop in the closet stage the conclusion would be that the intruder was almost certainly an outsider, not a member of the community. At that point it is appropriate to call in the outside authorities.