The name Aaron Swartz may not be memorable to you, but odds are, you see him every day.
A child prodigy, Swartz developed the RSS feed, which makes possible blog subscriptions and podcasts, at 14. He was also one of the masterminds behind the popular site Reddit. He was found dead, likely from suicide, at 26 in his New York apartment.
Swartz’ suicide has shined a spotlight on the legal questions surrounding informational freedom. A firm member of the free-information movement, he published millions of scholarly articles from the archive site JSTOR for free online. Though JSTOR had no issue with his actions, the government was preparing a conviction at the time of Swartz’ death, and could have put him in prison for up to thirty years.
Though he struggled for much of his life with depression, some blame this prosecution for pushing him to suicide. At his funeral, Swartz’ father declared that his son was “killed by the government.”
Senior Asher Szachowicz did not approve of Swartz’ distribution of JSTOR documents,, but “what struck me was the inordinate response. We lost this genius due to an unfortunate and completely preventable act by our government: hounding him to his death, quite literally.”
Librarian Kate Brooks has a career’s worth of knowledge of digital copyright and organizations like JSTOR. She has mixed feelings on the affair. “He did break the law,” Brooks said. “He didn’t have the right to do that. That’s a legal fact.”
Szachowicz has fewer reservations. He sees the case as a call to action about the nation’s copyright laws. “[It’s] more evidence that the copyright war is not over, and that there are real and human consequences to our outdated system of copyright law. Our system does not take into account the rapidly changing cultural and economic models on the internet.”
Brooks somewhat agrees. “There’s a part of me that admires the information-deserves- to-be-free attitude, but there are ways to do that legally.” Still, she explained, large portions of JSTOR are already out of copyright, and “it feels nonsensical and frustrating when you can have access to something that’s out of copyright and can’t get to it without paying.” Brooks’ larger concern is that the case “glorifies the act [of suicide], that he ‘died for his cause.’ I’m a little uncomfortable with him becoming a martyr.”