Aaron Swartz commits suicide | Hacker News Reader

Aaron Swartz commits suicide

tech.mit.edu

2,103 pointsbfaviero546 comments

Man this so sucks.

If you hit someone with enough felony counts sooner or later something can snap. This in response to those that claim the DOJ didn't have anything to do with Aaron killing himself.

For some people the mere fact of being suspected of a crime they didn't commit is enough to push them over the edge. When you're placed in a holding cell the police will remove your laces from your boots so you don't hang yourself, that's how heavy being imprisoned can weigh on some.

Aaron did something that he thought was right, that he truly believed in and that upset a large number of applecarts and that had far reaching implications, had the proverbial book thrown at him and then some. The prospect of significant amounts of jail time (35 years for downloading scientific papers, it shouldn't even be a crime) and/or a felony record must have weighed very heavy on him.

For a person that is of a very stable mental make-up that would already be extreme pressure.

For someone with a mental issue it may very well be all it takes.

Aaron was inspiring to me, I think that no copyrighted piece of paper is worth a human life and that the DOJ, even if they are not directly responsible at least indirectly carry some of the responsibility here for beating down someone who was fighting for an extremely good cause in a somewhat haphazard way. The letter of the law and the spirit of the law should both be taken into account.

I hope those that had a hand in Aarons' continued prosecution will sleep miserably for a long time to come. Likely it won't weigh on their consciousness at all.

Aaron Swartz did something he knew was morally right but very probably illegal in some way, and, him being a prodigy, I'm very confident he was aware of this. It is called activism, and is a very brave and noble thing to do, something most people don't have the guts for. Governments often try to break activists who threaten their agenda (or in this case, that of a dying industry), and it seems they have succeeded with him, which I find very sad and which makes me so angry.

Maybe being indicted while free may even be a bigger psychological pressure on somebody than being in prison. When you are in prison, you can focus all your energy on your case, and the situation can only get better than your current one, not worse. You have certain legal protections, and your basic needs are taken care of.

Imagine having to work a job to earn an income (your assets probably being seized) and function in society with a constant feeling of danger looming ahead. They can fuck up your life one little piece at a time. Imagine working on your defence when the computer you are using to do so can be seized at any time (some DA having convinced a judge that you may be hacking right now). Imagine restrictions on travel that make making a living even more difficult. Imagine randomly being delivered a letter with one more bogus charge.

While being free seems to be better than in prison from an objective point of view, given the workings of the threat detection system in our mind, made for tigers in the savannah, not constant worry and fear, it may be much worse. It is well known that the functioning of our "higher" abilities like creativity and critical thinking are impaired under constant stress. It's easy to conceive what this means for the feeling of self worth of somebody who lives for doing cool, meaningful, big things (one of my favourite essays ever, btw): http://www.aaronsw.com/weblog/productivity

Also, it neatly avoids the aura of illegitimacy that imprisoning peaceful activists would have for a government.

One lesson that could be learned from this is to try and consciously provide people in his situation with an environment that feels safe. Nut just a fund for legal and living expenses and therapy to cope with the stress, but much more importantly, reliable relationships with people who are supporting, compassionate and willing to listen.

This is terrible news, but, not knowing much about the case, how was it morally right to download a bunch of pay-for documents?

It really rubs me the wrong way when something like this happens and folks jump to conclusions as you have here. You didn't know this person. For all we know he could have not given two shits about the whole legal process and this is linked to family or relationship problems or long term general depression.

> You didn't know this person.

That's an assumption on your part.

And this was in response to people jumping to completely different conclusions, for instance that these things are not related at all. I wouldn't be so quick to make that call.

Maybe you feel like arguing this line with his mom? : http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5047398

I worked closely with Aaron over the last year, and knew him, though not as well as I would have liked. My belief is that the legal process weighed on him tremendously, though he didn't often show it.

I am very, very angry with our system right now.

Here here. Charities that work with people struggling with suicide and mental health problems consistently ask the media to not attribute a suicide to one particular cause.

Often things are more complicated than that.

Even if the assumption were wrong in this particular case, it is a worthwhile discussion to have. Intelligent people doing something relatively harmless being threatened with the possibility of decades in prison means something is very wrong.

Some people commit suicide after breakups --the other person often times feels guilt, yet they are not really guilty in any sense. There is at times a perception, though.

If anyone is still in doubt about how the DOJ impacted Aaron's life, it may be interesting to have a look at his last published blog post (http://www.aaronsw.com/weblog/tdk, discussion on http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5047421).

Aaron makes a parallel between the Batman movie and his own struggles, highlighting the corruption of the system and how the Joker was actually the only "sane" person in an insane world. Sadly, he decided to pursue the same path as Heath Ledger.

> "Thus Master Wayne is left without solutions. Out of options, it’s no wonder the series ends with his staged suicide."

Haunting.

edit : It's an insightful piece of writing purely in its own right, as are the rest of his works that I have come across.

The conclusion about the Joker reminded me of this: http://thisorth.at/24yt

This whole case really makes me wonder. A lot of people are blaming the DOJ for leveling so many charges against him. Yet when you read the case, it would seem the only entity who wanted to punish him was the government.

Maybe I'm just being optimistic, but with the sum total of evidence, I would have thought he had a better than 70-80% chance of winning outright. The other possibility is he would get a lighter sentence, or simply cop a plea for lesser time. The fact he may or may not felt compelled to take his own life based on what he perceived was going to happen to him is shocking. Instead of playing the hand he was dealt, he simply folded and ended the game.

It makes me wonder what advice people were giving him where he truly believed he was going to jail for the rest of his life. His case could've been a huge landmark case against this sort of unlawful litigation. Sad, really sad.

Wow I liked that decription of the movie better than the movie! Its a huge loss to society that he is gone; if the subject matter was not so grave I'd point to the staged suicide reference.... But it is, sadly.

I just want to say the desire to kill oneself does not have to do with outside circumstances. Its the faulure to realize who you really are, it requires a complete living inside the mind, and into believing that your thoughts actually are reality.

Some emerge from wanting to kill themselves enlightened - they realize the true nature of reality before they go through with it. Some of the most potent spiritual leaders today went throught this - Byron Katie, eckhart tolle both wanted to kill themselves.

Others, dont. There is no blame, it does not make it any less sad for those left behind, especially family members; Aaron lives on in all of us who were touched by him. I looked up to him as a hacker, brave hacktivist, and generally kick-ass guy. RIP Aaron.

> If you hit someone with enough felony counts sooner or later something will snap.

Can we stop the speculations until we actually know what happened? :-(

It's a reasonable assumption.

We may never know the true cause. There's no harm in discussing possible factors.

Do you really think an autopsy will reveal why he decided on suicide?

>Can we stop the speculations until we actually know what happened? :-(

No, because:

1) we'll never know what "really happened" (even if he had left a note stating a reason one can never know if something not mentioned also weighted on him psychologically)

2) speculation is, counter to what some may think, productive. For example, it gets you questioning stuff like the legal system in the comment above.

There is no need to speculate. The DOJ bought by corporate interests is directly responsible for his suicide. They are more worried about protecting corporate interests than worrying about the spirit of law.

Don't be ridiculous. Nobody is directly responsible for Swartz's suicide but Swartz. That's what suicide is.

Adversity, even extreme adversity, doesn't cause suicide; if it did, many, many people on earth would kill themselves.

I would even argue that it's often the opposite; adversity gives motivation and meaning; meaninglessness is more dangerous.

People I knew who committed suicide did it when they enjoyed a limited level of success. For instance, twenty years ago I was an actor in a play by an author who had been trying to make it for years. This play was a (moderate) success. Two days after the last show, the author jumped out of a window in his grandmother's apartment.

It baffled everyone around him, but I think the reason is that success didn't bring him the joy he thought it would bring. There wasn't anything left to look forward to.

They'll sleep fine, mission accomplished, and move on to their next target.

You've confused the roles of judges and a prosecutors.

They're not the same.

I took these to be part of the DOJ:

"The criminal investigation and today’s indictment of Mr. Swartz has been directed by the United States Attorney’s Office. It was the government’s decision whether to prosecute, not JSTOR’s. As noted previously, our interest was in securing the content. Once this was achieved, we had no interest in this becoming an ongoing legal matter."

So it's not as if anybody outside the government was still pressing charges over this.

Judges, United States Attorneys, they could have all put a stop to this, instead they allowed it to roll on destroying a life in the process, regardless of what Aaron did to himself or not.

A prosecutor's duty and role is to seek justice[0]. Justice isn't always black and white, but it certainly isn't applying the toughest charges that could possibly be made to stick nor seeking the highest possible penalty in every case. The prosecutor should attempt to determine what a just outcome to a case would be, then seek to achieve it.

[0] http://www.americanbar.org/publications/criminal_justice_sec...

I would agree with you if the separation of powers would work flawlessly, but it seems to me that even in many modern democracies, prosecutors have the means to do things that are quite punishing.

You're essentially arguing that the ends justify the means.

It's called activism. Sometimes bad laws must be resisted, by breaking them deliberately.

The best among us do it in public, under their own names, daring the state to make good on their threats.

The law is not a unitary piece. Were Aaron's case to proceed to its natural conclusion, the courts might have found that higher principles override the civil agreements that he was charged with breaking.

And even when the courts are of no avail - when the basic procedures and principles of the state are corrupt - then it is up to activists to fight that corruption, and one way is through the theatre of breaking the law in public.

If you hit someone with enough felony counts sooner or later something can snap.

There are the conditions for suicide, and then there's the impulse that drives it to happen. The first is visible and appears over a long period of time-- felony convictions, mental instability, or extreme career adversity-- but it never seems that things are that bad (especially because a lot of people refuse to admit that good things can happen to bad people). The second is fairly sudden and seems "random". This is why suicides are so unexpected. A person can seem to be "not that bad off" one day, and the next day, commit suicide.

The scary thing is that the first kind of conditions are being more common. We have:

* draconian sentences for minor crimes, including drug possession, white-hat hacking, and file sharing, * an increasing willingness of corporations to use extreme and illegal career adversity (e.g. blacklisting) against whistleblowers, * increasing difficulty for a person to "re-invent" him- or herself in the wake of a bad reputation.

Thirty years ago, if your life got fucked up, you could pull a Don Draper. You could pay people off to represent themselves as past employers and reconstruct your career under an alternate name, and move halfway across the country. (I don't consider this unethical in the context of radical reinvention, providing that you're not feigning competences you lack or defrauding people.) In 2013, that's becoming increasingly hard to do.

"Thirty years ago, if your life got fucked up, you could pull a Don Draper. You could pay people off to represent themselves as past employers and reconstruct your career under an alternate name, and move halfway across the country. In 2013, that's becoming increasingly hard to do."

You can still do that today although agreed it is much harder. You could simply buy someone's company for example with a history and claim that is where you were (and modify the website with the appropriate collateral.) You can fairly quickly setup a linked in profile and get lots of contacts of people in any industry that you don't even know (source: I get people writing to me wanting to be a linked in contact constantly as I'm sure most people do.)

There are people that actually have an inventory of old websites that have been around since the 90's (and domains registered back then) representing a wide range of industries.

That said this is not as easy and of course if someone does a really through vetting much will be uncovered. But how often is that done?

I never met Aaron Swartz but always wanted to. His work has had a profound impact on my life.

His blog was thought-provoking. http://www.aaronsw.com/weblog/

His work on the RSS 1.0 Specification enabled richer, more efficient information consumption. http://web.resource.org/rss/1.0/spec

His work on Markdown enabled intuitive, unobtrusive formatting and structuring of information in plaintext and conversion to HTML. http://daringfireball.net/projects/markdown/#acknowledgement...

His work on reddit enabled thousands—now millions—to share online information in a social manner. http://www.aaronsw.com/weblog/rewritingreddit

His work on the web.py framework gave countless Python programmers a head-start on serving information through web applications. http://webpy.org/

His work with DemandProgress gave Americans a political voice to protect and win back their freedom and the freedom of information. http://blog.demandprogress.org/people

His work with Creative Commons promoted the freedom of information and fair use and helped inform content creators of options other than copyright. http://creativecommons.org/

Thank you, Aaron Swartz, for all the above and all the other activism and works (https://github.com/aaronsw) I haven't mentioned here. You'll be missed and remembered by many.

Aaron was an old friend of mine, I really appreciate you making this.

Nicely put, reading through your list I realise I've used half of it too! What a waste :(

This guy was definitely making a positive impact in the world.

Many sub-reddits have formed around various types of support groups. Reddit has changed my life, so I guess Aaron Swartz is partially to thank.

Better eulogies will follow, to be sure, but in the mean time, much of what can be said about him is captured in a touching talk he gave called "How to Get a Job Like Mine" [1]. What I think is especially touching about this is how he gently deconstructs his success, demystifying his own legend by pulling back the curtain on what would have otherwise appeared to be a string of miraculous accomplishments. In the process, he reveals himself to be a sensitive, seemingly grateful, and thoughtful person.

May he be remembered well; he seems to deserve it.

[1] https://aaronsw.jottit.com/howtoget

'I thought of suicide.'

I winced when I got to that. It's sad to think this isn't the first time he's had these thoughts and how long he must have had them. Rest in peace.

I ran from the police.

I wonder what that meant (appears just after the sentence you quote).

> he reveals himself to be a sensitive, seemingly grateful, and thoughtful person.

Definitely. He wrote a bunch of blogposts last year on improving life, called "Raw Nerve": http://www.aaronsw.com/weblog/rawnerve

Wonderful writing.

This. I first saw a raw_nerve post here on HN, and that's how i got to know of Aaron. Such writing requires an ability for introspection, among many other things. I find it hard to contemplate how someone with such a mind could possibly commit suicide. Sad day, indeed :(.

Nicely written, yes, but today's news is not a testament to those writings' effectiveness.

It's easy to deride suicide but fact of the matter is that it is the final but a very powerful option we have at our disposal. Instead of saying that a particular person should not have committed suicide, our hope should be that if a suicide happens, it is well thought through and is not done in haste. If a particular person decides that decades of painful life is much worse than simply ending the existence, who are we to question such a personal decision?

Of course, if everything was alright, I would have loved to see Aaron existing in this world for many more years and do wonderful things but not knowing what led him to this step and how he judged the current/future life for himself. Simply commenting that he should not have committed suicide is being insensitive to a person who has already done so much great work for humanity.

Life is not always better than no life. Context matters. A lot.

Context certainly matters.

Depressed people are not perfectly rational agents. By the time you are contemplating suicide, it's not even close.

And depression is a factor in almost every suicide.

Depression is insidious because it makes all the alternatives to suicide seem much more difficult than they actually are.

> By the time you are contemplating suicide, it's not even close.

This is classic begging the question. One could easily say someone who claims suicide is never a rational option is the altered one. It must be seriously condescending for those trying to help someone contemplating suicide to offer such plainly specious arguments against it, especially if that person is the contemplative type. It likely does more harm than good.

This is right. I'm shocked at the "suicide apologists" in this thread.

I beg to differ from what you are saying. I do understand your point though, but let me give you another picture. And this I say from personal experience.

People around the world go through tough times. For some the path is eased by good friends, family, "miracles", etc. For others the path becomes too difficult to tackle. In the end the person chooses not to fight any longer. As much as we should respect this decision, we should also remember that many people avoid that decision to end life and actually become happier in life. Sometimes you may be just an inch away from being saved.

Every person who has every felt disturbed and suicidal and did not take the step, probably feels good about not taking the step. So if you ask me personally I would differ and say we should help each other till the last moment, never give up.

Every person who has every felt disturbed and suicidal and did not take the step, probably feels good about not taking the step.

Having worked as a volunteer on a counselling service for a couple of years I can say without a shadow of a doubt that you are 100% wrong there I'm afraid. Some certainly. Everybody - no.

>Every person who has every felt disturbed and suicidal and did not take the step, probably feels good about not taking the step.

This is the ultimate example of survivorship bias. Please don't use this line of "argument."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Survivorship_bias

What you are saying makes some sense if and only if it's a choice done NOT out of mental illness - ie. depression

This news is horrifying and only sadness to me, I don't think it was a healthy choice.

We really need to address the stigma of depression in this country and make it easy and painless to ask for help. That help should be free and readily available.

As someone who's suffered from mental illness for most of his life, I disagree. While I have things largely under control these days, it had nothing to do with the professional help that was offered/forced on me; in fact, it was a huge impediment. Receiving help is not a panacea, and I can't blame anyone who's dealt with it for a long time for completely lacking hope.

I don't think suicide is the answer, but I can at least see the point of view; after all, I could've seen myself going down the same path, if I hadn't figured out how to cope.

When I was first going through what turned into a very long diagnostic phase for some mental health (let's call them) oddities, every person involved at any stage asked, every time I talked to them, whether I had thought of suicide. At one point, I had been asked about it so much I actually started contemplating if I were to kill myself, how would I do it (mind you, this wasn't wanting to, or even entertaining the notion, but me going "Why not actually think through the reality of it?"). I came to the decision that if I were to ever kill myself, I would stab myself in the heart with a knife. Yes, it would be excruciatingly slow and painful (can't quickly stab yourself and dodge ribs, have to drive the blade extremely deep to get the heart, etc.), but it would serve a singular purpose: to signal that it wasn't a quick decision, to absolve people from feeling like there was something more they could have done and to remove all doubt about how strongly I felt about making the particular decision. When I explained this to the psychiatrist next time I was asked, his response was along the lines of "Do you think someone would be capable of that?" And the only response I had was "If they wanted to end it all that badly, yes".

All this as a long ways to get around to saying: I disagree with anything that may consider suicide appropriate in any situation as one persons personal decision and situation becomes an example or model that someone in a similar situation could look to. But, I also don't think anyone should say a particular person should not have committed suicide. Instead, what should be said is a particular person should not have felt the need to commit suicide.

You made me think. The idea that I have the option to end it makes life more bearable. Give it your best go and reevaluate.

As Nietzsche put it: "The thought of suicide is a great consolation: by means of it one gets through many a dark night."

It seems to me that in majority of cases suicide is simply the final symptom of a mental illness that was not or could not be treated and in that the situation is not that different from one in which someone dies for example from cancer. I don't think anyone is really saying that "he should not have committed suicide", what would that even mean really anyway, but it's OK to be sad that we don't always know how to more effectively help people in such cases.

I understand what you mean, but it's the kind of logic I can only follow when I'm actually feeling suicidal. "This is a rational decision, it's not a bad thing to do, society has stigmatized it but I have a right". But (for me) a few days later, the weight just sort of lifts, and suddenly it seems like a really terrible, selfish idea again. I know it'll come back, and I dread that, but in the meantime I can't consider that it would have a been a reasonable choice. Things feel very real and very logical at the time, but looking back it's hard to understand why.

Here's the JSTOR Statement related to the downloading incident: http://about.jstor.org/news/jstor-statement-misuse-incident-...

What Happened

Last fall and winter, JSTOR experienced a significant misuse of our database. A substantial portion of our publisher partners’ content was downloaded in an unauthorized fashion using the network at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, one of our participating institutions. The content taken was systematically downloaded using an approach designed to avoid detection by our monitoring systems.

The downloaded content included more than 4 million articles, book reviews, and other content from our publisher partners' academic journals and other publications; it did not include any personally identifying information about JSTOR users.

We stopped this downloading activity, and the individual responsible, Mr. Swartz, was identified. We secured from Mr. Swartz the content that was taken, and received confirmation that the content was not and would not be used, copied, transferred, or distributed.

The criminal investigation and today’s indictment of Mr. Swartz has been directed by the United States Attorney’s Office. It was the government’s decision whether to prosecute, not JSTOR’s. As noted previously, our interest was in securing the content. Once this was achieved, we had no interest in this becoming an ongoing legal matter.

Can we not know who exactly (their faces/names etc.) were the people working in the "US Attorney Office" bent to indict him? It's easy for people to term it was not JSTOR, it was the Attorney Office but ultimately these things happen only because people forget how to treat other people properly.

I'm not sure what you're getting at here. While I'll agree it was overzealous to make a federal case out of this, you can't blame federal prosecutors for doing their fucking jobs just because someone kills themselves. Many people have survived federal prosecution without dying or killing themselves.

I'm shocked and horrified by this news too. It's awful that Aaron died. But it's foolish to blame anybody but him for his actions in this.

Presumably DOJ doesn't flip coins to decide which cases to handle as there is considerable time, money and other resources involved in each case.

It would be interesting to know how much political and lobbying interests influence those prosecutions. I could not find anything of substance on this topic.

JSTOR can of course officially deny everything, but other publishers, along with MPAA would probably have a vested interest in turning him into an example.

Presumably, from what I had just read here, Aaron's political views wouldn't exactly been too popular with the US govt -- maybe this is just enough to put his case at the top of the stack.

Who are you referring to, exactly?

The federal prosecutors? The division head? The attorney general?

How do you plan to identify the parties bent on indicting him? You certainly can't assume the prosecutors took this on as some sort of personal crusade.

Assuming you can identify the individuals most responsible, what do you plan to do to punish them for their actions? The implication of getting "names and faces" out in the public domain is potentially serious.

I've seen this sentiment echoed variously up and down this thread, and it is scary. Inaction is not the appropriate response here, but neither is the public stoning you appear to be proposing.

I can't speak for anyone else, but I'd just like to place on the record that if I die under similar circumstances, my wish is that nobody will start an ugly witch hunt in my name.

It was Carmen Ortiz who was responsible for the unjust overzealous prosecution of Aaron Swartz which ultimately contributed to his death.

Carmen Ortiz's blind ambition has caused her to run roughshod over people's freedom in the past: http://thephoenix.com/Boston/news/141253-15th-annual-muzzle-...

We can only discourage the over-zealousness of prosecutors by making sure that it becomes a career limiting move instead of a career advancing one.

Lessig was kind enough in his writeup to not name names: http://lessig.tumblr.com/post/40347463044/prosecutor-as-bull... but this kindness is both undeserved and unwise. Carmen thinks big convictions will get her a federal judgeship or other appointment. The public needs to make sure this isn't the case.

This question seems to imply that his death is the DOJ's fault, which I find preposterous.

Carmen M. Ortiz, US Attorney

http://www.justice.gov/usao/ma/meetattorney.html

Knowing the reddit community, do you really think that is a good idea?

Thank you all for your kind words and thoughts. Aaron has been depressed about his case/upcoming trial, but we had no idea what he was going through was this painful.

Aaron was a terrific young man. He contributed a lot to the world in his short life and I regret the loss of all the things he had yet to accomplish. As you can imagine, we all miss him dearly. The grief is unfathomable.

Aaron's mother

I'm terribly sorry for what you have to go through, Aaron was a source of much inspiration to me, thank you for bringing such a wonderful person into the world.

He did more in his short life than most of us will do in much longer ones, but he'll inspire for many years to come.

I wish you and yours much strength.

I am so sorry for your loss. Aaron was a true hero of mine, of the net, and of the world. We will all miss him greatly.

I am terribly sorry for your loss. Aaron was a huge inspiration for me too, just as he was for countless others. He has accomplished more in his short life than most can in much longer ones. My thoughts and prayers go out to you and your family.

Dear Aaron's mum. There is a lot of wrong in this world, and people like him take it upon themselves, because that's the only way to try to make the world a better place. The evil system is stronger than anyone of us, and chased him down, til it crushed him. I can understand why having lost his hope and lifelines he would feel he could not go on. Many people give up because they cannot find their way out of a wrong system. But I am sure he will be reborn in no time, and next time, he will come back stronger and more capable than before. Let's just pray for his soul and his rebirth.

Thank you for the gift of your son while we had him. He was a light in the world.

Having dealt with suicide of my brother I feel for you. It truly is a horrible thing to deal with... The pain never does go away. I hadn't heard of Aaron but have read some amazing articles about him since this story broke. Depression is terrible... Both dealing with it and watching someone else suffer. The feeling with both is just helplessness. Your son has done some truly amazing things in his life... I pray that these are the things that everyone remembers him for and not just the way he passed. My heart goes out to his family and friends, I see he had many.

No Mother should have to bury their own child regardless of the cause of death. My heart goes out to you and I hope you will rest with the knowledge that your son will be remembered as a true patriot, to whom we all owe a huge Thanks. If their were more people like Aaron this planet would surely be a better place to live. Stay strong and You are in my prayers.

Aaron was a unique, inspiring, and puzzling individual. I knew him only a little, but I always knew that whenever I heard his name it would be in the context of an ambitious and bold new adventure. It's truly tragic loss for the tech community, and I cannot imagine how difficult it must be for his family. Our thoughts and best wishes are with you.

I'm terribly sorry for your loss. I was reading about it when I saw his speech 'How we stopped SOPA'. We all owe a lot to him for what he has done. This man is a true hero.

My heart is warmly with you now, as are thousands around the world who mourn Aaron, even those who had never met him. Few things can really alleviate your pain now but I hope you will find some solace in our expressions of sympathy. They show that his values and contributions will live on and continue to inspire many. However brief his presence among us has been, you can be proud of what your son fought for - as we all are.

Some of your son's essays have contributed to my outlook on life in a significant way. Please accept my sincere condolences for your loss.

This news shocked me today. I didn't know much about your son but I admire what he did. This world has lost another great person.

I am so sorry for your loss. Your son was a genius and a generous person true to his beliefs -- the rarest sort.

You should always be proud of him.

Dearest mother,

Your son will never die. For the soul never dies. Also his beauty lives in our memory, and learned aspiration. This world wil never be the same again, as he left a very strong mark, the mark of a beautiful soul. The world has been touched. Your son is a legend.

Your son brought me closer to you.

Katia leitao

So very sorry that Aaron was in so much pain. He was truly an amazing person and in such a short life had a significant impact. The world is diminished without him. http://www.scoop.it/t/grief-and-loss

Losing someone to suicide is terrible. I am so sorry that you're going through this.

Many people had immense respect for your son. He was seen as a good person. Clever, decent, principled, kind, generous.

> The grief is unfathomable.

I cannot understand the depths of that grief. But yes, the grief is unfathomable.

Aaron is a hero.

I wish you and yours much strength.

He is a legend. And legends never die, they stay in the minds of generations to come.

Thank you for taking the time to address the HN community even at such a time like this, this means a lot to us. I am so sorry for what you as a mother have to go through. My prayers are with you and for your family.

This is terrible news and I am very sorry to learn of it. I have tremendous respect for Aaron's activism, and I am sure that I am not the only one who feels that way.

I am so sorry for your loss. I don't know what to say, but may you find every piece of strength there is to find to pull yourself through this.

My deepest sympathies for your loss.Aaron was a beacon of light and love and we will never forget him and what he taught us about sharing.

I want to offer my condolences for your loss, Im very empathetic to Arron's situation. I can only imagine someone that graduated and took the right path in life to be potential labeled as a felon If in fact he what I assumed cared greatly about his reputation I ask that you all watch; titled Illegal Everything https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nBiJB8YuDBQ its my goal that maybe this tragedy may help the next Aaron????

Having lost my brother to suicide just a year ago, I can empathize deeply with your loss. My thoughts are with your family.

Aaron Thank You for the work you done.. Rest in Peace. To his Friend and Family I will be praying for you. Blessings.

I absolutely W-E-E-P for the loss of such a genius with a beautiful and generous soul. We all owe him so much.

I am very sorry for your loss. He was an inspiration, and would still continue to be one. May he find peace.

May god be with you ... helping you through this rough time. Aaron was gifted and we're sad he left us.

I'm crying and I've never met him. Seeing the love people are showing and his impact is inspiring.

My condolences to you, ma'am. Your son was an inspiration to many people.

Deepest sympathies to you and your family and all who loved him.

We are all sincerely sorry for your loss. Condolences.

:( I'm so sorry for your loss. Aaron was a great man.

I'm very sorry for your loss. Sincere condolences.

Very sorry about your loss. It's a sad day.

Sorry for your loss.

a tribute to the world. an inspiration for all.

Aaron was amazing. Sorry for your loss. He was and is an inspiration to many people like me.

suck copyright, world miss a genius,rip.

Aaron suffered from a brain disorder. He had documented periods of extreme withdrawn depression and others of mild manic productivity.

Because of that brain disorder, perhaps because it was not attacked with the requisite treatment, he is dead.

If you or a loved one are ever feeling suicidal, depressed, or are acting abnormally erratic, contact an expert. It's nothing to be ashamed about. It's just a lottery of genetic expression.

There are others going through the same thing. There are excellent treatments available, and they get better each year. You might save someone's life.

http://www.reddit.com/r/suicidewatch http://www.reddit.com/r/depression http://www.reddit.com/r/bipolarreddit

I find it bizarre how quickly our minds jump to impossibly unlikely reasons when tragic events like this happen. Troubles with the justice department don't alone cause a bright young man to kill himself.

> I was miserable. I couldn't stand San Francisco. I couldn't stand office life. I couldn't stand Wired. I took a long Christmas vacation. I got sick. I thought of suicide. I ran from the police. And when I got back on Monday morning, I was asked to resign.

> I followed these rules. And here I am today, with a dozen projects on my plate and my stress level through the roof once again.

https://aaronsw.jottit.com/howtoget

http://www.aaronsw.com/weblog/dying

> I have a lot of illnesses. I don’t talk about it much, for a variety of reasons. I feel ashamed to have an illness. (It sounds absurd, but there still is an enormous stigma around being sick.)

> Sadly, depression (like other mental illnesses, especially addiction) is not seen as “real” enough to deserve the investment and awareness of conditions like breast cancer (1 in 8) or AIDS (1 in 150). And there is, of course, the shame.

http://www.aaronsw.com/weblog/verysick

In his short life Aaron has produced a wonderful collection of writing, code, and actions, which will all be available for years to come. He will be missed. His effects have not yet ceased.

> Troubles with the justice department don't alone cause a bright young man to kill himself.

A potential to spend a longer part of his life than he has already lived in prison, will probably have a serious impact on anyone's mental state.

Perhaps he's suffered from clinical depression? http://www.aaronsw.com/weblog/verysick

/dying was very painful to read. Does Alex symbolize Reddit? Does the key lime cookie symbolize the money involved in the acquisition of the payment Reddit got? Is the "cafe trying hard to be international" the acquirer? Maybe I am reading into this too much, but the timing of that post seems too coincidental. It's almost like his will died with that whole process. RIP.

Thank you for this write up. It's nice to see this rational, weighed view on the incident among reactive speculations and accusations. But why a throw-away account?

Can you provide more information about which brain disorder?

Fuck this country.

EDIT: The guy was facing 13 felony counts for downloading academic articles.

Understandable emotion, but the country did not kill him. He did that.

You can disagree with the laws of the land, protest them, even violate them in protest assuming you are willing to pay the consequences.

You can blame the country, its politicians, or its voters for having bad laws. You can't blame those entities for this suicide. That was his choice, and it's unfortunate he will not be around to make his case.

Rest in Peace Aaron

Why are you assuming he did it because of his legal problems?

Context?

I've thought of suicide. Not "seriously," but it's crossed my mind. Sometimes life just seems so hard.

My reaction to this is that he was a brilliant guy, and it was such a waste. Such a pointless waste.

It makes the idea of giving up myself seem so wrong.

Rest in Peace Aaron. I'm sorry it had to end this way.

> I've thought of suicide. Not "seriously," but it's crossed my mind.

If it happens again, get help. I'm quite serious.

I started seeing a therapist recently, to address the issues that lead to my depression. If things go south on me again, I have someone to talk to. Kind of like having a lawyer on retainer.

Thank you for your compassion.

It's not your job to give this sort of advice to people here. It's not some sort of mental disfigurement to think about these things you know. He and everyone else has the right to explore and experience unhappiness. And anyway, by fixating on a peripheral detail of his post you derail the conversation and force him into a rather supplicatory posture. Not cool.

Some of the first sensible advice I've read in this thread. I'm slightly disgusted by the sheer quantity of comments on how suicide can be "right" and how he was "pushed into it".

Suicide is never, never the answer, it can just seem like it sometimes when you are very, very low.

Perfectly possible to think about it but never act. I don't think there's been a day in my life in which I haven't contemplated the ramifications of offing myself.

Each and every time, I reach the same conclusion - it would be pointless. Null isn't a value, so I'd rather strive for happiness, even if my mood usually lurks around -1.

This is terrible news.

Depression is treatable. If you find that you are thinking about suicide, even speculatively, seek help immediately.

You are not alone and it will get better.

There is a mental illness here and the mental illness is thinking that his suicide is unrelated to the massive witch hunt against him by the US Federal Government hellbent on his personal destruction at any cost.

Those who deny that that had anything to do with this, and it was only a "brain disorder" or other such claptrap are truly insane.

I've had students who for years were systematically abused and tortured by adults. This abuse caused them pain, distress, depression, and suicide ideation, not a chemical imbalance. Despite this, counselors they saw diagnosed them as having a chemical imbalance and pumped them full of pills that have psychosis and suicide as known and documented side effects.

Who is insane in this situation? Who is responsible for the damage it causes when a young person is targeted for destruction by sociopaths and it causes them to crack? A chemical imbalance? Not the things that are being done to them by others intentionally trying to harm them?

This attitude justifies the abuse of people. This attitude leads to suicide. This attitude needs to stop.

None of these strawmen remotely resemble anything I've said.

did he have a history of depression? perhaps it was simply due to stress or pressure? The thought of spending the next 35 years in prison for downloading documents can be pretty painful... probably as bad as someone who was wrongfully tried for murder.

Depression is the leading cause of suicide. Almost all suicides are somehow connected to it.

It can have many causes. Sometimes it's innate to the person, sometimes it's brought on by circumstances; oftentimes multiple factors are involved.

But the bottom line is:

If you are thinking about suicide, get help. Right now.

For some reason this is a shock to me. It shouldn't be, I didn't know the guy. But I was just playing with web.py framework. It is so strange, I thought just today, I wonder if Aaron would accept a pull request, I could see a few things to improve.

Looking back at his activity on github he was pulling in commits less than a week ago:

https://github.com/aaronsw?tab=activity

I don't know details about the "JSTOR" case or about what he did at Reddit but I can see in his code that he cared and wanted to make something better, smaller and elegant. I respect that and it is a loss to have him gone forever.

I also never met him, but this really upsets me too.

It was a bummer when I saw the headline, but I'm really, really upset now that I was reminded of his legal troubles.

Suicide is complex, so I don't want to speculate on whether or not he committed suicide to avoid a trial and probably incarceration. Regardless, it had to be a factor and it certainly fucked up his life somewhere between a little bit and a lot a bit.

When I realized just how many spiders I've written... When I think about that spider with a $240B+ market cap... When I think "This could have been me or one of my friends"... I started to cry :-(

Web.py is actually a fantastic library. There still is Anand maintaining web.py I guess.

RIP I guess.

Meanwhile, the guys who wiped out literally trillions of dollars of wealth by cratered the global economy in an orgy of greed, fraud, and reckless disregard for everything but their own inflated bonuses couldn't get arrested if they tired.

There are a lot of things wrong with this situation, but the egregiously misaligned priorities of the US Attorneys are near the top of the list.

Aaron Swartz may have left everything to Givewell. This makes it even sadder somehow in ways I can't fully describe.

http://www.reddit.com/user/AaronSw#c4e7n4h

The same page shows that the last Reddit comment he ever made was on /r/HPMOR. I don't think I noticed at the time - I don't think I knew he was a fan.

I have said and will say that Aaron Swartz acted heroically in trying to free the scientific literature. It was a good try.

Aaron Swartz's presence in various networks:

In HN: http://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=aaronsw

Pinboard: https://pinboard.in/u:aaronsw

His last tweet was on Jan 9th, https://twitter.com/aaronsw

Reddit: https://aaronsw.jottit.com/reddit

Google Scholar: http://scholar.google.com/citations?user=PGTlB14AAAAJ

Writings: https://aaronsw.jottit.com/writings

---------------------------------------------

Things he made:

https://www.jottit.com/

http://openlibrary.org/

http://watchdog.net/

http://reddit.com/

http://webpy.org/

HN will miss your contributions.

Rest in Peace. #Love.

Headline is a little misleading as Reddit admins deny his cofounder status.

http://www.reddit.com/r/reddit.com/comments/9r8on/aaron_swar...

https://twitter.com/alexisohanian/status/93374221685755904

Still very sad, of course. I was fully in support of Aaron during the JSTOR fallout.

Additionally: http://www.reddit.com/r/todayilearned/comments/d2njs/til_the...

https://aaronsw.jottit.com/reddit

I'm sorry, but merging with a company doesn't make you a cofounder of that company. You were not there when it was founded, thus it's not an applicable label.

I'm just asking for a title correction, not trying to slander the guy.

Shocking and saddening. I've been working with Python lately and feel a particular loss because of web.py and all the other good work he did. My prayers go out to his family.

I wonder why some people here are assuming this tragedy is because of the JSTOR incident. It seems to me that everyone should just meditate on what's been lost, and defer judgement about why he would do this until there is evidence.

> I wonder why some people here are assuming this tragedy is because of the JSTOR incident. It seems to me that everyone should just meditate on what's been lost, and defer judgement about why he would do this until there is evidence.

Thank you so much. It's awful to see people in here blaming the trial when suicide is much more complex than a single incident pushing someone to the edge like that.

I'm speechless.

He had his troubles and he made some bad decisions, but it didn't have to be like this.

I wish his family peace and clarity in this dark hour. I'm just so sorry.

Sad, he just wanted to make the world a better place.

Read the statement above.

If you're looking anywhere its probably towards the US Attorney's office, not JSTOR.

Every single person employed by the US Attorney Office involved in this tragedy should be sued to hell by the family. Have some goddamn responsibility for once.

This is utterly disgraceful, I feel for his family.

Did any of the employees of US Attorney Office forced him (like putting a gun to a head of one of his loved ones) to do it? It was his own choice to end his life.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qualified_immunity

https://www.google.com/search?q=doj+presecute gives me : DOJ Will Not Prosecute Goldman Sachs in Financial ... - ABC News 9 Aug 2012 – The Justice Department has decided it will not prosecute Goldman Sachs or its employees for their role in the financial crisis...

http://www.aaronsw.com/weblog/productivity

Share the load Even if your friends aren’t cheerful, just working on a hard problem with someone else makes it much easier. For one thing, the mental weight gets spread across both people. For another, having someone else there forces you to work instead of getting distracted.

It's always a shame when someone commits suicide in a situation like this. There's always a better option. Everyone makes mistakes.

I've seen this happen in my own life. I had a family friend that committed suicide after being indicted of a felony DUI charge because he swore he never would go to prison.

Tragic. My thoughts are with his family.

A tragedy that this caring young man has taken his own life. My heart goes out to his family.

This feels a bit inappropriate but at the moment I hope that some members of the US Attorney's Office are wracked by guilt.

You're being a bit unfair. It's equally inappropriate for me to speculate about his motives, but I recall there being an undercurrent of melancholia in Aaron's writings even pre-indictment.

Reading https://aaronsw.jottit.com/howtoget it seems he was thinking of suicide already many years ago.

Wouldn't they just perceive this as some sort of admission of guilt?

They checked their conscience at the door a long time ago.

RIP Aaron, you were too soon for this world.

I think it's tragic that we all, with our laws and courts and systems of 'justice', can ruin a brilliant kid's life to the point where he decides it's not worth living anymore.

All over 'stealing' some ideas.

Here's to the crazy ones, the misfits, the rebels, the troublemakers, the round pegs in the square holes... the ones who see things differently -- they're not fond of rules... You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them, but the only thing you can't do is ignore them because they change things... they push the human race forward, and while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius, because the ones who are crazy enough to think that they can change the world, are the ones who do.

rip

This makes me think of Len Sassaman's (cypherpunk, remailer developer,etc.) suicide from 18 months ago :( It's terrible when anyone kills himself, but when it's someone who was doing something which pushed the limits like this, it's worse.

I'd like to write something nice, but I'm in too much shock to even know where to start. He showed his brilliance through code and his humanity through his writing.

And as much as it is "right" to respect him for his very personal decision, I can't help but wish he were still here. This is the premature end of the life of someone who could have dramatically changed the world. Reminds us that, now more than ever, that's our job here, too.

The only way I can really react is to say that I'm here to talk for any friends (or anyone dammit). Community support is community.

I didn't know aaronsw personally but I have just checked out his web.py that others have been praising and it's really neat because it's so simple. What an amazing piece of work. For others who may not be aware, just see this brief tutorial [1].

His writings on life and how to get better at it are also phenomenal [2]

It's very sad that aaronsw is no longer with us for he was very gifted and talented. May he rest in peace and my thoughts go out to his family and friends.

[1] - http://webpy.org/docs/0.3/tutorial [2] - http://www.aaronsw.com/weblog/rawnerve

I remember most of the teachings from those days, back in the early 2000's. Before hacking, before startups, before entrepreneurs, before changing the world felt like a cool, common thing.

Before all of that, I remember this guy doing it, doing it well. And that inspired me to believe I can do it.

An artist's only passion is to create, until the day you die. In between you fight all sorts of battles that they don't warn you about. But the most important being that when you create, you carry with you a savagery of sorts, of making something new, of living in the edge.

And it's hard to survive. Nowadays we take for granted the Google style lunches and buslines, but being at the edge of something has always been trying to eke out in an hostile environment.

But this guy was there, all day, all night.

And that's special. Because it's an isolating experience.

I get the same suicidal thoughts that drift in and out too. It's partly chemical and it's just your personality. When you stand outside of the system long enough, watch long enough, suffer the heartbreak of seeing the wrongs enough, you may end up there too.

This was the glorious ending I wished for him.

May he truly rest now in peace.

Upvoted before I got to the "glorious ending" line. Wish I could take it back.

The other fucked up thing about this is that if he'd done this at Stanford, Berkeley, or anywhere else in the 9th Circuit (which is the best circuit!), or the 4th circuit, he wouldn't have been charged under CFAA. It's only the backward backwaters of the 5th, 7th, and 11th who would charge under CFAA. He was in the 1st, which hadn't yet ruled. SCOTUS would have been very likely to side with the 9th, since the 9th is the best in general, and was correct in this case.

So, yet another reason to be angry -- this case was perfect for removing ToS violations from CFAA.

This is so sad. I just responded today to an email from him about demandprogress.org. RIP.

I read this as I was preparing to head to my brothers memorial service in a couple of hours. He committed suicide last week.

I just wanted to say that I understand why some people do it. My brother suffered from schizophrenia - he was an incredibly nice and giving person who kept on hurting people due to his disease. I understand why he took his own life and I don't fault him for it. Of course I am incredibly sad about it and wish I could have done so much more, but 20 years of intense suffering wears on a person.

We don't know the exact details behind Aaron's decision. A significant percent of the people who knew Stephen, even those who knew him well, didn't know about his diagnosis either. It's impossible to draw any more conclusion than "he was suffering and couldn't bear the burden anymore". My condolences to his family, I truly know what they are going through and it's absolutely shit.

This post terrifies me. My own brother has been diagnosed with schizophrenia (then they retracted that diagnosis and came up with a different one), but the bottom line is that he has been suffering for most of his life and it seems like no one can help him. It feels inevitable that a day will come that will bring tragedy in some form or another.

I'm so sorry for your loss.

You can see some of his recent work here https://github.com/webpy/webpy

I used to read his blog. Here's something I will always remember. When they sold Reddit to Conde Nast, back in 2007 or so, Aaron Swartz wrote something about it on his blog, saying how he felt about it and how he didn't have to worry about money anymore, etc. And then he decided to give away some money to startups in need. I replied to his blog post and he gave my old startup a $100 donation. It felt really generous. RIP Aaron.

This makes me incredibly sad.

The work I do now is made possible by Aaron's work on PACER (http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/13/us/13records.html). We are all in his debt.

Accordingly, I've added a memorial banner to PlainSite to ensure that everyone who uses it daily to find cases (including many in government and the DOJ specifically) will be reminded of his contribution--one of many.

Here is a thing you can do: Boycott JSTOR from now on. And refuse to publish to any journal / conference that demands $10 or more for downloading a paper that should be free (if you are not that lucky to have access to a subscription of that journal / conference).

In April 2011 i was accused of a small crime that could have given prison also. I was judged in January 2012 and accused to pay a fine of 500€ despite the accusation had no proofs. Every day i though about how to prove my innocence despite being a small accusation, it destroyed my work and mood for the whole year.

How to fix ? if no damage was done there is nothing to accuse of.

And distribution of knowledge should be free, or ransom ware the release of that info to the public should be made available upon compen$ation for the work done, ransomware maybe.

Aaron ideals of greater good and sharing are nobler than any politician or any other bullshitter that get media coverage and have the power to change the world for the better.

I know a lot is being speculated about how the whole JSTOR story is what could have possibly pushed Aaron over the edge. And I think the discussion is important in its own right, about easy access to academic journals. But, I think it is very important that we do get to know what it actually was that triggered this extreme act on part of Aaron. If someone as capable and intellectual as Aaron could fall prey to something that makes one end his life, what becomes of the average hacker who tries hard to achieve a level of success such as that of Aaron, and goes through phases of depression in life.

There has to be more to it then just the JSTOR case.

It's simply awe-inspiring how much he was able to do with his short life. Time to revisit one of my favourite talks:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=4GwftoQElJ0

This talk makes me sick to my stomach. There's so much life, so much energy, so much passion. So much potential—you can feel, through a videotaped talk no less—that he wants to go somewhere in life.

What a screwed up world.

Wow. Shocking news! I've been reading Aaron's stuff online and following him on twitter for years. Only last week I re-read his amazing "Raw Nerve" blog post series http://www.aaronsw.com/weblog/rawnerve

Lost for words!

Aaron Swartz was an excellent programmer and writer. I have bumped into his code and writings often. The raw nerve series ( http://www.aaronsw.com/weblog/rawnerve ) have been especially influential in shaping my thinking. Above all, he was a wonderful human being: the world is a bit worse off and a sadder place without him. Rest in peace, Aaron.

Will HN's colors be going black?

this was posted an hour ago, pg is probably in bed already.

Just the other day I emailed aaronsw asking about OCLC and his plans to topple it. His response wasn't very optimistic. I should have asked him a more humane question, like "sup" or "how's it hanging".

For whatever reason, I keep bumping into his work, whether it's through the python world or through BOSSlab, geurrilla open access, or The Sprouts. He has had a very strong impact on some very important problems in the world. I suspect that he might have seen some (perhaps twisted) value in being a martyr, especially in the face of extreme stress.. So far I prefer the living version of aaronsw.

I think a lot of us can see parts of each other in Aaron, both in his values and work. Another someone pointed out, just how many spiders have you written? Everyone does it, but hardly nobody talks about it. Is it really so terrible that we want to read science? or share code? And then this happens.

All of the criminal documents from his last court case are published on the Internet Archive. This one in particular is rather thrilling to read:

http://ia601205.us.archive.org/25/items/UsaV.AaronSwartz-Cri...

"An analysis of one of the fingerprints on the Acer laptop purchased and used by the defendant cannot exclude his friend, Alec Resnick."

"Promises, rewards, or inducements have been given to witness Erin Quinn Norton. Copies of the letter agreement with her and order of immunity with respect to her grand jury testimony are disclosed on Disk 3."

"a. The computer was registered under the fictitious guest name “Gary Host.” b. The computer’s client name was specified as “ghost laptop.” A computer’s client name helps to identify it on a network and can be chosen by its user. In this case, the name was simply created by abridging the pseudonym “Gary Host,” combining the first initial “g” with the last name “host.” c. The fictitious “Gary Host’s” e-mail address was identified as “ghost@mailinator.com.” This was a “throwaway” e-mail address. Mailinator is a free, disposable e-mail service that allows a user to create a new e-mail address as needed, without even registering the address with Mailinator. Mailinator provides this service for users to have an anonymous and temporary e-mail address. Mailinator accepts mail for any e-mail address directed to the mailinator.com domain without need for a prior registration, and it allows anyone in the world to read that mail without having to create an account or enter a password. All mail sent to mailinator.com is automatically deleted after several hours whether read or not."

"... "The defendant has requested first that the government provide ".. any and all notes and reports provided to USSS or USAO by CERT in relation to the forensic analysis of the ACER laptop, or any analysis of any evidence including but not limited to the PCAP log information"."

`.. earlier posted on one of his websites, guerrillaopenaccess.com, a call-to-arms entitled "Guerrilla Open Access Manifesto" which concluded "We need to download scientific journals and upload them to file sharing networks. We need to fight for Guerrilla Open Access."`

Context for some of these quotes can be found here: http://gnusha.org/logs/2012-09-15.log

http://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=aaronsw

My housemate committed suicide four years ago; his wife and I found the body. Since then my charity of choice has been AFSP: their programs and support were very important to nth of us afterwards. They do good work.

http://www.afsp.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=home.viewPage&p...

OMG, the shock of it ...

He was such a terrific writer, easy to see why he could code so well

Oh gosh, I am so sorry to read this.

I communicated with him once or twice re: rss, and I enjoyed his postings at photo net.

He was young, bright, witty. This is terrible.

I will miss you Aaron, I had such hopes for you.

That is so goddamn sad. Rest in peace, Aaron.

In this blog article, he speaks a little about his illness -

http://www.aaronsw.com/weblog/verysick

Rest in peace, Mr. Swartz.

As life moves as the currents in the ocean, some of us find ourselves in tropical paradises, whilst others are gifted the horrible cold of the artic. There are some who manage to hang on to another current and make headway towards warmer climates, there are some who do not. The world is now saddened to learn that you were caught up in the harsh artic cold of life. We could ask questions as to why did you not swim harder or faster, but none of us were in your place.

Your short life was anything but worthy of such tragic end. You decided to leave too early, too soon. Still, your presence still lives through your work, the community you helped build, and the people you touched.

Farewell.

As someone who has read pg's writings and watched YC grew, the reddit story is very close to my heart. I always felt I knew Aaron, Steve and Alexis well even though I never met or interacted with them. This is such a shock. RIP.

I am really upset by this. I normally feel pretty far away from news stories I read anywhere, but this feels close to home. =(

Just read the talk. I didn't realise it was given at the college I studied in. Sad to hear the news. Only today morning my daughter was saying how depressing classes are at school because every subject they study talks about how humans might become extinct. We can sometimes get too focused on problems and such times all that we need is a person to just say "It is not too bad. There are good things happening as well". Perhaps a lot of suicides are down to this missing person in our lives. We are all more connected thanks to the Internet, and also increasingly isolated.

This should be a call to action to academia. Please open your journal archives to the online community free of charge.

He made huge impact in the tech world. RIP

This is just absolutely shocking.

Aaron Swartz was an inspiration. To know that a person you looked up to, someone from whom you learned so much through his writings and his projects, ended up finishing his life like that...

Speechless!

I'm sad, really sad. I didn't know him personally and have never spoken to him. But few times when I read one of his tweets or when I visited a page of his site from a link elsewhere, I was saying to myself that it should be hard to be in his position actually, that it must put your life on hold and shut any of your plans to be stuck in such a preposterous legal situation. I as a simple citizen command you Aaron Swartz for all your inspirational work, Thank You.

I am deeply sorry to hear about this and it brings back memories of last year when a friend of mine did the same.

Depression is a terrible thing, and I hope we are one day able to cure it. It is treatable, seek help immediately if you are thinking about suicide! I hate that you cannot look upon someone and instantly know if they are depressed or not. If I could, I would drop everything to help a person I saw having trouble.

I hope Aaron found peace, and I wish his family the best.

Aaron was one of the genuinely good guys. May he rest in peace.

I only met Aaron once, in 2000, when he looked like this: http://www.aaronsw.com/weblog/000291

I was always amazed that the wunderkind with the pizza stain on his shirt that visited us at Arsdigita University accomplished so much. He was reserved, but focused, forthright at such an early age. I couldn't help but feel he was a little disappointed in the rest of us, but he never showed it.

RIP, Aaron. We'll miss you.

How Google (and we) encourage suicide:

The first link to "suicide" search results (https://www.google.com/search?q=suicide) to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suicide which unfortunately has "Reasons" & "Methods" before "Prevention" and has no mention of why you shouldn't commit suicide.

At the bottom of the first page of the results, the first related search is "suicide methods" http://imgur.com/7lJ02

Further search for "suicide methods" results in the following first three links:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suicide_methods

http://wantdeath.blogspot.in/2011/07/fastest-and-painless-su...

and

http://frater.com/suicidelist.html

There is no mention of why suicide is bad and it just gives the depressed person a way to end his/her life.

I don't blame only Google, but I think the entire web & the web community (with SEO, SEM, etc) contributes a lot for this disaster.

He was an inspiration to me. What a loss to his family and internet. Rest in peace.

For the record, a few months ago we had a back and forth about his writing process, and he was kind enough to write one of his pieces in one of those editors that keeps track of your changes so you can see the piece evolving. Very insightful.

At the end of that, I wrote a reply commenting on what I thought about his writing process, and never got anything back. He must have not been feeling great at that point.

I feel bad now.

Aaron,

I miss you, we never met, but you inspired me. You burned so brightly, yet so briefly.

Aaron, thank you for all you've done. It's had a tremendous impact on my life.

Aaron had a really interesting blog post on pain worth reading called, "Leaning into the Pain". It's worth considering that pain doesn't just impact the individual. Try to let others help. http://www.aaronsw.com/weblog/dalio

This is tragic. :(

You were an inspiration at times. And more importantly, one among those who make people want to change for the better.

I didn't know Aaron, but I've been using web.py for years, so I kind of felt like I knew him from hanging around the online community. I really don't know what to say - he was incredibly intelligent, and made great contributions - the 'net gets a little lonelier every time we lose someone like this. :( RIP.

My condolences to everyone who knew Aaron. This is really sad.

This is sad both for me as a person, and for the internet community as a whole.

Aaron Swartz was the sort of person I wanted to be, his works, his personality, and what he stood for.

Since nothing can ever be done to reverse this, may this occurence illuminate the fact that laws are made for people, and not people for laws..

Why isn't this anywhere on reddit.com?

It was posted in /r/news but didn't make it to the front page. Weird indeed.

http://www.reddit.com/r/news/comments/16ffph/reddit_cofounde...

The news got removed from multiple subreddits. Even a picture of him was on the frontpage and on top of /r/pics/ for a short time is now removed.

I find it odd that, to my knowledge at least, no one on HN has so far noted the connection between Aaron's activism against the US government re: SOPA/PIPA and his terrible treatment by them. Surely it's one of the reasons why they went after him.

Rest in peace Aaron. Someone I looked up to in more ways than words any words can explain.

OH NO!

Stunned & heartbroken.

35 years for downloading something that is morally, and supposedly be free (funded by taxpayer money)? This is a big joke! I believe homicide cases dished out lighter sentences.

If access to journals, or more accurately scientific research, is to be restricted in such manner, then all government should stop funding/ providing grants for scientific researches, at least not from taxpayers money. These interested parties, namely the journals publishers, should come out with such funds as eventually they are making money from such works. It's ridiculous for the public to fund their business.

RIP Aaron Swartz.... you have make yourself heard, loud and clear, to the civil society.

This has hit me hard. So much potential, and gone so young. So sad. Rest in peace Aaron.

If anybody is partial to listening to music during times like these, I recommend Tchaikovsky's Symphony no. 6 [1]. The fourth movement in particular is extraordinarily moving and an ice cold glimpse of disdain, depression, and ultimately the death (some say suicide) of a romantic genius [2]. Of course the entire work is something to behold in all its movements.

1) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Symphony_No._6_(Tchaikovsky) 2) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DtLq8wj0p80

Sad. Terrible news.

I was just reading 5ish year old comments on reddit about him and suicide http://www.reddit.com/r/reddit.com/comments/1octb/reddit_cof... which lead my to this blog post of his describing a suicide http://www.aaronsw.com/weblog/dying

I lost a friend to suicide. It is and was the worst thing ever. I still miss him dearly about 1.5 years on. Breaks my heart. My love and condolences to his friends and family.

It's a sad, sad world we live in. RIP Aaron.

RIP

I'm so sorry to hear this. My heart goes out to the Swartz family. No matter anyone's contributions, this gets the volume turned down on everything else turned down.

The only thing we have on this earth is time.

When think about it, what PG's close friend and buddy Robert Tappan Morris did with bringing down a vast number of computer on the internet back then; was incomparably and inexorably worse.

Yet, Robert Morris has had a great life, both as an acclaimed professor at the greatest technological institution that has ever existed (MIT), and of course as a key member of Y Combinator.

Yet a petty non-criminal like Aaron is put through something infinitely worse than the "punishment" of community service that was dished out of RTM.

Ha. Some justice system indeed!

In his young life Aaron demonstrated that he wanted the world to have knowledge, ethics and community. I think the best way we can honor his legacy is to carry those things forward as best we can.

RIP Aaron

Shit! one of the most brilliant minds of all time, his series raw nerve http://www.aaronsw.com/weblog/rawnerve has inspired hundreds of people including me to overcome life pain and depression. how could he just do that ?

Aaron, you should have not done that .. I'm sure thousands of people of this community would have fought for you to get you out of your problems .. your contributions will always be remembered .. it's just so sad ..

I can't stop reading his writings. He was a talented writer, amongst other things. I really feel the connection even though I never met him.

My condolences to his family and the entire community. :(

I was very saddened to hear this news. I posted my thoughts to my blog. http://benatkin.com/2013/01/12/rip-aaron-swartz/ He accomplished a lot, and taught us a lot, and I think most of us can still learn from him. http://www.aaronsw.com/weblog/archive

True shame. Regardless of your opinion of his actions concerning JSTOR, it's undeniable he made a positive contribution to the web.

R.I.P Aaron. You're get followed now and forever for all the good things you've done. We'll continue fighting for a better world.

This is awful news.

I haven't been in touch with Aaron for several years, but I had a brief encounter with him in 2008. I was between jobs and decided to help out with his watchdog.net project of the time. He was always incredibly kinda and once tracked down my number and called to check that I was OK after I was unexpectedly offline for a several days.

Great guy; will be missed.

Basically: if you feel strongly about JSTOR and it's ilk do the following in order of preference

1. Publish in an open access journal 2. Publish in a regular journal and make YOUR version available in http://arxiv.org/ or your website

It will get you more citations and you will do your part in disseminating science

RIP Aaron...

Terrible terrible news. What troubles me the most is that this could happen to any one of us. RIP Aaron.

This is extremely tragic. The world is a horrible place when some of its best people loose all hope and choose to leave it early. It is quite crazy that that downloading scientific papers can incur sentences longer than the maximum for crimes such as rape, manslaughter, etc.

Fuck :(

Is there a proof that it's a suicide? He dies yesterday, and annouced as `suicide` immediately?

Did you even read the posted link, or are you just responding to the headline?

Regardless of everything happening in his life, it's terrible in any instance when someone is pushed to the point where they rationalize taking their own life. Best wishes and thoughts to Aarons family and friends as they mourn during this horrible time.

I find Aaron's responses on his own Wikipedia talk page quite a fascinating insight to his personality and humility. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Aaron_Swartz

Goddamnit, this is just horrible. My sympathies to Aaron's friends and families. I always found his work and his writings interesting and sometimes even inspiring. Our society would have benefitted from an extra 60 years of this guy.

Does anyone have a copy of the source to theinfo.org or any of this previous versions? I have a complete archive of the mailing lists. I'd like to make sure it doesn't disappear, it and other things Aaron did inspired things I made.

Spez, from Reddit, says he isn't a cofounder:

http://www.reddit.com/r/todayilearned/comments/d2njs/til_the...

RIP Aaron. You will be missed.

What a terrible loss. Aaron had many fruitful years ahead of him. He left us far too early. My condolences to his family and loved ones. I hope at least this compels others who have depression to seek help for themselves.

RIP Aaron. You were awesome.

Very sad, and very unexpected. He had so many interesting things going on.

R.I.P. Aaron! We miss you!

So sad to lose someone that's made such a dent on the world so young.

http://qblog.aaronsw.com/post/38405145996/part-of-the-player...

Man. What a shame. We lost a seriously talented and creative guy.

Somehow, a part of me hopes that he will have a few scheduled blog posts that get posted on his weblog in the future, hopefully revealing more things we didn't know about.

RIP Aaron Swartz.

Can pg or someone with the access please put the black bar on?

I am very saddened by this young man's taking of his life and the apparent reckless pursuit by the Government to prosecute him for a seemingly minor "crime."

And all over Reddit the posts to the news get removed. :-(

This is probably the first time a HN story has got so much traction in such little time. This explains how much people will miss Aaron. RIP bro.

Wow, this is terribly, terribly sad news. :-(

Wish there was more that could be said, but I guess the only appropriate thing is:

R.I.P. aaronsw, you will be missed.

So he could have gone to jail for hacking into the MIT machines/library. Machines where they knew had already gained access to.

I hope that you have found peace and a better place Aaron. It was too soon to lose you, we need the brave ones.

Suicide is almost never a solution. It's a real shame this couldn't be prevented in due time. Rest in peace!

Thank you for your activism. RIP Aaron.

We are all Aaron Swartz. Let's not let our generation down. Stick together people.

OH my goodness this is terrible, my condolences to his friends and family.

RIP

RIP Aaron.

I wonder if the DOJ will charge Google with scraping the whole Internet.

This kid had it all, fame, fortune, brains.

So what we wrong? Why was he so unhappy?

It's all over HN but Reddit's front page is still memes and cats.

May he rest in peace and his legacy be remembered. That's all.

I was hoping to hear from PG on this .... :( nothing yet

I'm very sad. A piece of my hope is gone.

Its sad that this is important and at the top of HN, yet Reddit is still full of cat pictures on the front page.

It's #2 on my front page (via /r/news).

RIP Aaron.

...

Thank you Aaron. RIP

Can anyone find details about how he suicided? He might be faking is own death..

wow. so sad.

I have no words. I've been sitting with my phone's cursor blinking in this box and, for the first time in a long time, my stomach has turned so much from this news that I have nothing to write.

What an absolutely dreadful shame. My heart is wrenched for his family and all of us, who lost a brilliant young man. I'm a month older than he was, and to imagine someone my age thinking there was no way out... with all of the possibilities of his life, a life just beginning.

Christ.

When you are faced with 35 years of jail and $1Mln fine - i guess you start thinking out of the box...

RIP. So sad.

Like many others here, may path also crossed his several times as I kept bumping into his work. He had a ton of really cool side projects. I pinged him a few times about some of them and he was always really gracious and helpful in his responses. I didn't find out his stature in the community (reddit cofounder etc) until recently and was shocked he had taken the time to reply to me.

As for the reason he did this now: I'm sure it was a combination of things that had built up over many years, however in a criminal case like this, now would be the time his lawyer would be attempting to work out a plea bargain with the prosecutors. If they were demanding a long prison sentence and multiple felony convictions, and the evidence against him was very strong (as it sounds like it was) many people would probably contemplate suicide.

My heart goes out to his family. I'm a big fan of his work, particularly web.py. He made a huge impact on the web by anyone's standards and his contributions have personally touched my life in many ways. Rest in peace, man.

At 24, he was just a kid. I can't even imagine the amount of stress in his life. Who are we to question or speculate on why he did what he wanted to do. I'm glad he contributed what he did in this world. I'm glad we had 24 years. He decided we weren't getting any more. I never feel sad for suicide. You can't tell people you want to do it or they will have your freedom taken away.

Sorry for bad grammar... small comment boxes make me feel pressured to get out everything in a few lines quickly.

I admired him quite a bit after the JSTOR thing.

What can we do to help carry forward, and continue Aaron's work?

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