Aaron Swartz, American hero
washingtonpost.com
washingtonpost.com
Bullshit. No punishment is appropriate. A system that punishes someone for standing up for justice does not deserve to continue its existence. Aaron deserved a medal, not a fine or a prison sentence. Here is my take on it:
http://jacobexmachina.blogspot.com/2013/01/aaron-swartz-free...
In a just system, the system will go out of its way to bend, and all the individuals in the chain, from the prosecutor to the judge to the jury, will do the legal minimum- and then push for change. In the best system, the citizens will take part in jury nullification, and save the defendant.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jury_nullification_in_the_Unite...
The very concept of law started as a need for order and justice, preventing grave crimes. Now, controlled by the powerful, it stands as a way to reduce justice, and to increase injustice.
Really?
Keep in mind how accessible those documents were before the non-profit JSTOR library opened, and whether those documents would exist in digital format at all if JSTOR didn't have the ability to sell access to them so they can pay their owners to license them.
And then you really want to compare trying to break that system with trying to free slaves? The analogy would only very tenuously hold if you thought the slavers were helping blacks by taking them from Africa and enslaving them.
There are enough counter examples, just study history. (for example that of the CCC and his members and fellows)
Yet that's exactly what this article did.
And they really did not have to do that, in order for them to make their point (and nor did Graham, for that matter--but perhaps that was an old essay and quoted out of context).
It's a particular stumper when you consider that Swartz has loads of fans outside the US as well, and they are following this news with just as much interest, reading also US mainstream articles like these.
It's all right to be proud of your country, although of course it's neither very original nor very elaborate thinking. But why denigrate others? For your information, there are a lot of activists who fight for freedom of information, human rights and net neutrality in those countries as well.
That may be true. But those countries also don't torture people, inprison people without charge, or start senseless wars. The US may make people richer, but it also has the highest proportion of its population in jail, compared to all other countries in the world. The US has a lot to learn from Europe.
ROTFL
England and Germany have much greater limitations on free speech than does the United States.
Except that it isn't.
> But those countries also don't torture people, inprison people without charge, or start senseless wars.
And neither is this.
I don't know which part of the EU you're from, but we've got a bit of a longer history to have made all those mistakes that you name, and so we've made much more of them. Colonialism comes to mind. Or if you're looking for something more recent, the secret (US) prisons in Poland and other East-European countries. And what they needed those custom-built metal cages for.
Then there's Sweden, throwing that TPB guy into solitary confinement for 2 months, before even officially charging him. Did not result in suicide, but you can be certain psychological damage has been done and that guy will never be the same.
See while you are not wrong about the atrocities committed by the US both inside and outside their borders, it's really really really important to first be aware of the horrible things that are being done at home, before you point your finger at an easy target on the other side of an ocean. Because those are the ones you have the best chance of affecting real change upon, the far away ones you can just yell about, or at best send money/aid or something.
(and before anyone points out possible hypocrisy, I'm very aware that I've probably fallen for this same trap in some of my earlier comments on HN. It's such an easy trap to fall for, that it therefore bears pointing out anyhow! I suppose it's similar to what I tell the kids I teach, "I don't care who started it, you both should cut it out!" ;-) ... a lesson that is really hard to make stick. we've got a built-in mental circuit for "fairness" and "guilt", and in situations like these, it really gets in the way of rationality and "doing right". Personally I find compassion (metta) meditation to help tremendously ... but I digress, sorry)
So far, everyone has talked about the losses of not having Aaron's (and those like him) extraordinary contributions.
I wonder if a better way to count the cost is by how many bitter, cynical super-villains we're creating. What happens when all of the people with Aaron's talents decide that good is for suckers and become "investment" bankers instead. A culture that loudly and openly demonstrates that it cares nothing for truth or justice and reduces the law to politics is going to create a lot more Madoffs than Swartzes.
And the selling of the blue boxes seems as wrong as what Swartz was accused of...and less altruistic too.
HN will miss your contributions. Rest in Peace. #Love.
Whaaaat, you have got to be kidding me.
Colouring inside the lines? Let's see, the Demoscene is almost exclusively a European phenomenon. There's the CCC. Fravia did not exactly colour inside the lines. There's the Pirate Bay. Wikileaks. Just a colourful few from the top of my head, there's more if you dig further.
If you really have to look for a difference with Silicon Valley, I'd say it's about making money, startups, entrepreneurship, chasing that "American Dream", contrast with the above examples which are all people that did it for idealism, art or just for the heck of it, instead of for profit. In that context, Aaron Swartz falls squarely in the latter category.
Before you throw a fit about my stereotyping, stop. The distinction I sketched in the previous paragraph is just as stupid as the one Graham tried to make. I think it's stupid to draw a distinction between US and EU like this[0], after all, that's what this global communication information age is about. There's "startup-hackers" in the EU just as much as there are "tinkerer-hackers" in the US.
Having said that, the first thing I thought when reading that headline was "wow, if a big media outlet like the Washington Post names you 'American Hero', you really did something very right", and I felt happy. Which turned to disappointment when I found that the "American" part of that title was wrought with such bitter nationalism.
[0] I'm leaving Japan out of this because I really hardly know anything about that country and don't want to be caught with my foot in my mouth, somebody more knowledgeable than me can make that part of the argument.
What saddens me the most is not so much that he died but more that he didn't live to accomplish all the great things a fearless visionary like him could have done for all of us...
> You may stop this individual, but you can't stop us all... after all, we're all alike.
The idea of dissent is practically everywhere and there is nothing inherently american about it. Neither is 'dissent' the first thing or the top 10 thing that comes to mind when you talk about americanism.
Breaking the law is breaking the law. How can one have humor about it? I would love to see the author share this 'humor' when someone plugs into his network and steal his digital stuff.
Except he didn't break the law.
Free Speech is all about dissent, and at least as a foreign, I associate free speech with the "American values", even if there are doubts about how really protected it is.