14 Years Ago with AaronSw
On January 6, 2011, police arrested Aaron Swartz and the internet watched. Two years later, Aaron was inducted into the Internet Hall of Fame.
I have major issues with academic material I write being kept behind paywalls so I shared Aaron Swartz’s passion with regards to that issue.
Fourteen years ago, on January 6, 2011, Aaron Swartz was arrested by Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) police on state breaking-and-entering charges. Aaron had connected a computer to the MIT network in an unmarked and unlocked box closet. He set up a routine that resulted in the computer downloading academic journal articles systematically from Joint Storage (JSTOR) by using a guest user account issued to him by MIT.
Within a few days, federal prosecutors charged him with two counts of wire fraud and 11 violations of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, carrying a cumulative maximum penalty of $1 million in fines, 35 years in prison, asset forfeiture, restitution, and supervised release.
Aaron declined a plea bargain that would have put him in federal prison for six months. Two days after the prosecution rejected a counter-offer by Swartz, he was found dead in his Brooklyn apartment.
In today’s AI-powered environment where major technology companies have hoovered treasure troves of published material, there appear to be no penalties for the well-financed architects of today’s large language models.