[Chapter-delegates] Fwd: Aaron is dead.

[Sivasubramanian M]

On this, a good write up, from the governance list

From: "Ian Peter" <ian.peter at ianpeter.com>
Date: Jan 13, 2013 2:15 AM
Subject: [governance] Sad death of Aaron Schwartz
To: <governance at lists.igcaucus.org>

I am posting below a few links reporting on the sad death by suicide of
young Internet activist, Aaron Schwatrz.  Aaron was a complex figure who
made very substantial contributions to the Internet, including the initial
RSS specification, Reddit, and the founding of Creative Commons,  and who
suffered from depression. Cory Doctorow reports on that here.

http://boingboing.net/2013/01/12/rip-aaron-swartz.html


Aaron had been indicted in US for 13 counts of felony, and faced a long
imprisonment term, for releasing articles from academic journals to the
public domain. Last September, Tim Berners-Lee commented on the severity of
these charges as follows

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2012/09/feds-go-overboard-in-prosecuting-information-activist/

And in recent hours Electronic Frontier Foundation has posted the following


https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2013/01/farewell-aaron-swartz


“Moreover, the situation Aaron found himself in highlights the injustice of
U.S. computer crime laws, and particularly their punishment regimes.
Aaron's act was undoubtedly political activism, and taking such an act in
the physical world would, at most, have a meant he faced light penalties
akin to trespassing as part of a political protest. Because he used a
computer, he instead faced long-term incarceration. “

This is a sad time. Although the laws are not directly responsible for his
death, It is very sad that an already complex person of great individual
brilliance found his life further complicated by reactive laws.

Thank you Aaron Schwartz for your contribution to the Internet and to
internet freedom.
On Jan 12, 2013 11:58 PM, "Sivasubramanian M" <isolatedn at gmail.com> wrote:

> http://boingboing.net/2013/01/12/rip-aaron-swartz.html
>  On Jan 12, 2013 11:57 PM, "Sivasubramanian M" <isolatedn at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
>>
>> This is from the W3C list
>> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
>> From: "Tim Berners-Lee" <timbl at w3.org>
>> Date: Jan 12, 2013 10:37 PM
>> Subject: Aaron is dead.
>> To: "SW-forum Web" <semantic-web at w3.org>, "TAG List" <www-tag at w3.org>
>>
>> Aaron is dead.
>>
>> Wanderers in this crazy world,
>> we have lost a mentor, a wise elder.
>>
>> Hackers for right, we are one down,
>> we have lost one of our own.
>>
>> Nurtures, careers, listeners, feeders,
>> parents all,
>> we have lost a child.
>>
>> Let us all weep.
>>
>>
>> timbl
>>
>>
>>
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