So i had to post a follow up about this case, coincidentally charges were dropped and the exact thing Swartz fought for, free access to academic journal on JSTOR, has now been accomplished "in a sad irony, just this week JSTOR announced that millions of articles will now be free to individuals".
Gawker published an article with evidence that Aaron Swartz was innocent.
Aaron Swartz Died Innocent — Here Is the Evidence
I was the expert witness on Aaron's side of US vs Swartz, engaged by his attorneys last year to help prepare a defense for his April trial...
I know a criminal hack when I see it, and Aaron's downloading of journal articles from an unlocked closet is not an offense worth 35 years in jail.
The government's allegations are laid out in detail in the indictment (included in full at the bottom of this post), and contemporaneous news accounts provide a good summary of the prosecutor's view of events.
Aaron was accused of downloading millions of documents from JSTOR, a non-profit web portal used by university researchers to access the archives of thousands of academic journals. At the time of Aaron's actions, JSTOR access was not free to individuals, and the locking away of this huge store of academic research was extremely controversial and a topic of personal interest to Aaron. In a sad irony, just this week JSTOR announced that millions of articles will now be free to individuals. (click here to read more)
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