Andre Yoskowitz
12 Jan 2013 19:04
R.I.P Aaron Swartz.
Swartz, the celebrated Internet activist took his own life earlier today. He was 26.
The programmer was also one of the original developers of Reddit and authored the RSS specification when he was just 14 years old.
Swartz was set to begin a federal trial next month over charges of computer fraud, for which he had plead not guilty. The charges related to 5 million academic papers that Swartz allegedly downloaded from the academic online archive JSTOR, which costs money to access if you are not affiliated with a college/University. Prosecutors claimed he intended to share the files, for free, online after having stole them through illegal access on M.I.T's campus.
The programmer was facing 35 years in prison, and a $1 million fine if convicted.
Last year, Swartz also co-founded Demand Progress, a group to promote social justice issues online. The group helped take down last year's SOPA and PIPA Internet censorship bills.