The Massachusetts Institute of Technology never sought a federal prosecution of Aaron Swartz, the programming prodigy who was charged with stealing millions of academic papers from an online archive at MIT, according to a report by the institute. …read more
Tag Archives: Aaron Swartz
MIT report says it didn't seek federal charges against Aaron Swartz
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology never sought a federal prosecution of Aaron Swartz, the programming prodigy who was charged with stealing millions of academic papers from an online archive at MIT, according to a report by the institute.
Swartz committed suicide in January while facing federal charges including computer intrusion, wire fraud and data theft, which could have led to a sentence of 35 years in prison and a $1 million fine. The case has led to protests against what critics called an overly aggressive prosecution and calls by lawmakers to change the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act. U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder later said the government never intended for Swartz to serve more than a few months in prison.
The report, which was requested by MIT President Rafael Reif in January, was issued on Tuesday, the institute said in a press release. It cleared MIT of any wrongdoing but raised questions about whether the institute should have been more actively involved. The report was prepared after conversations with about 50 people, including faculty, students, alumni, staff, police officers and lawyers, and Swartz’s family and friends.
MIT remained neutral on Swartz’s case from the time of his arrest in January 2011 until his death in January 2013, never making public statements about the merits of the case or whether it should proceed, the report found. The institute didn’t request that federal agents get involved in the investigation or federal charges be brought against him. The institute didn’t try to influence the prosecutor’s decisions on the case, other than saying the government shouldn’t assume that MIT wanted Swartz to go to jail, it said.
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Source: FULL ARTICLE at PCWorld
MIT Clears Itself in Suicide of Aaron Swartz
By John Johnson
MIT has released its own internal report on the suicide of hacker activist Aaron Swartz , and the Verge highlights one anonymous quote it contains that seems to sum things up: “MIT didn’t do anything wrong; but we didn’t do ourselves proud.” The report , by well-regarded computer science professor Hal Abelson,… …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Newser – Home
Hackers Conference Wants "Time Apart" from "Feds"
Over the last few years, frictions between the federal government and hacker groups have been highly visible: whether it was the revelations from Wikileaks, the rise of Anonymous and its connections to the Occupy movement, the death of Aaron Swartz, or the more recent revelations by Edward Snowden, the rise of outlaw behavior as a new form of politics has been putting the tolerance for internet freedoms to the test. …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Forbes Latest
Prosecutors, others involved in Swartz case express safety, privacy concerns
The U.S government and two other entities involved in investigations leading to the indictment of the late Internet activist Aaron Swartz have asked a federal court in Boston to redact the names of people involved in the case from documents being sought by Swartz’s estate and by some lawmakers. …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Computerworld Latest
Swartz Prosecutors Get Foul Threat
Court Filing
Two federal prosecutors in the case against late Internet activist Aaron Swartz say they are being harassed — in the form of postcards.Look: Site under guillotine is plain wrong
…read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at AOL
Aaron Swartz Prosecutors Threatened With Guillotine Postcards
By The Huffington Post News Editors
WASHINGTON — Two federal prosecutors involved in the case against the late Aaron Swartz have faced “harassing and, at times, threatening communications” from supporters of the Internet activist, the Justice Department said in a court filing.
Government lawyers argued that the U.S. District Court in Massachusetts should not disclose to the public or to Congress the names of individuals in investigative documents related to Swartz’s prosecution. Whatever “additional public benefit might exist by disclosing those names” is “outweighed by the risk to those individuals of becoming targets of threats, harassment and abuse,” the government said in the court filing on Friday.
Jack W. Pirozzolo, first assistant U.S. attorney for the District of Massachusetts, said in the filing that Harvard Law professor Philip Heymann, the father of Swartz prosecutor Stephen Heymann, had received a postcard showing his “disembodied head” on a guillotine. Stephen Heymann received a similar postcard with a photo of U.S. Attorney Carmen Ortiz with the caption “Heckuva job, Steve” and a photo of the MIT president’s head under a guillotine.
Video: Obama’s Newest Partner In Crime
By Kris Zane
On February 27, 2012, WikiLeaks released hundreds of thousands of emails hacked from Stratfor, aka Strategic Forecasting, Inc., which some have called “the shadow CIA.”
A group of hackers responsible for the breach of Stratfor was led by Jeremy Hammond, now facing decades in prison and a multimillion dollar lawsuit from Stratfor. Like many nabbed by our current President, Hammond has been held indefinitely in solitary confinement and has not been granted a trial.
Hammond was also aligned with Aaron Swartz, inventor of the web feed format RSS and founder of the hugely successful social news site Reddit. Swartz had hacked into a university database containing hundreds of thousands of fee-based academic articles and was planning on releasing the article database to the public. Directed by Attorney General Eric Holder to throw the book at him with possible decades in prison under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, the emotionally fragile Swartz, age 26, hung himself.
The hundreds of thousands of Stratfor emails hacked by Jeremy Hammond, while being released to the public, have gone largely unread, even by WikiLeaks.
An investigator is currently trudging through Stratfor’s emails and has come to some troubling finds concerning the Obama administration, which we will be reporting on in the coming weeks.
One such discovery is that it appears Obama and the Prime Minister of Turkey, Recep Erdogan (who is aligned with the Muslim Brotherhood), conspired to topple the governments of Libya, Egypt, and Syria.
As a background, Obama has been frantically trying to get the European Union to accept Turkey as a member despite the country’s ties to Islamic radicals. Most recently, Obama forced Israel to apologize to Turkey for killing nine so-called “humanitarian activists” when a Turkish-based six-ship flotilla tried to break the Gaza blockade. This was Turkey’s ninth attempt and was in defiance of Israel’s legal blockade to stop Hezbollah, Al-Qaeda, and the Muslim Brotherhood—all groups that have vowed to annihilate Israel—from shipping weapons to the terrorist group Hamas in the Gaza strip.
Why exactly is Obama so close to Erdogan? Turkey is not an ally of the United States and in fact is aligned with Islamic extremists, specifically the Muslim Brotherhood. Yet Obama made two visits to Turkey in 2009, while neglecting to visit Israel even once during his first term.
Why indeed?
Like a couple of teenage girls, according to the hacked Stratfor emails, Obama was on the phone with Erdogan almost constantly in the lead up to the toppling of Libya’s Gaddafi, Egypt’s Hosni Mubarak, and the attempt to topple Syria’s Bashar al-Assad.
During the Tahir Square so-called “protests”—which were orchestrated by the Muslim Brotherhood—Obama secretly phoned Erdogan on January 29th, February 5th, and February 12th of 2011. Per one hacked Stratfor email:
SABAH has accessed the details of three telephone conversations made by the American President to Prime Minister Recep Erdogan in order to discuss the crisis in Egypt. The first call was made by President Obama to Erdogan on January 29th to discuss the start …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Western Journalism
Video: Obama, Turkish PM Conspired To Topple Libya, Egypt, And Syria
By Kris Zane
On February 27, 2012, WikiLeaks released hundreds of thousands of emails hacked from Stratfor, aka Strategic Forecasting, Inc., which some have called “the shadow CIA.”
A group of hackers responsible for the breach of Stratfor was led by Jeremy Hammond, now facing decades in prison and a multimillion dollar lawsuit from Stratfor. Like many nabbed by our current President, Hammond has been held indefinitely in solitary confinement and has not been granted a trial.
Hammond was also aligned with Aaron Swartz, inventor of the web feed format RSS and founder of the hugely successful social news site Reddit. Swartz had hacked into a university database containing hundreds of thousands of fee-based academic articles and was planning on releasing the article database to the public. Directed by Attorney General Eric Holder to throw the book at him with possible decades in prison under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, the emotionally fragile Swartz, age 26, hung himself.
The hundreds of thousands of Stratfor emails hacked by Jeremy Hammond, while being released to the public, have gone largely unread, even by WikiLeaks.
An investigator is currently trudging through Stratfor’s emails and has come to some troubling finds concerning the Obama administration, which we will be reporting on in the coming weeks.
One such discovery is that it appears Obama and the Prime Minister of Turkey, Recep Erdogan (who is aligned with the Muslim Brotherhood), conspired to topple the governments of Libya, Egypt, and Syria.
As a background, Obama has been frantically trying to get the European Union to accept Turkey as a member despite the country’s ties to Islamic radicals. Most recently, Obama forced Israel to apologize to Turkey for killing nine so-called “humanitarian activists” when a Turkish-based six-ship flotilla tried to break the Gaza blockade. This was Turkey’s ninth attempt and was in defiance of Israel’s legal blockade to stop Hezbollah, Al-Qaeda, and the Muslim Brotherhood—all groups that have vowed to annihilate Israel—from shipping weapons to the terrorist group Hamas in the Gaza strip.
Why exactly is Obama so close to Erdogan? Turkey is not an ally of the United States and in fact is aligned with Islamic extremists, specifically the Muslim Brotherhood. Yet Obama made two visits to Turkey in 2009, while neglecting to visit Israel even once during his first term.
Why indeed?
Like a couple of teenage girls, according to the hacked Stratfor emails, Obama was on the phone with Erdogan almost constantly in the lead up to the toppling of Libya’s Gaddafi, Egypt’s Hosni Mubarak, and the attempt to topple Syria’s Bashar al-Assad.
During the Tahir Square so-called “protests”—which were orchestrated by the Muslim Brotherhood—Obama secretly phoned Erdogan on January 29th, February 5th, and February 12th of 2011. Per one hacked Stratfor email:
SABAH has accessed the details of three telephone conversations made by the American President to Prime Minister Recep Erdogan in order to discuss the crisis in Egypt. The first call was made by President Obama to Erdogan on January 29th to discuss the start …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Western Journalism
The Computer Fraud and Abuse Act Is a Failed Experiment
In light of Aaron Swartz‘s tragic suicide, there has been a lot of discussion–some productive, some not–about reforming the Computer Fraud & Abuse Act (the “CFAA“). I support some of the reform proposals, but they don’t go far enough. Initially, the CFAA banned hacking, but over the years, it has morphed into a general restriction against online trespass to chattels. In this post, I’ll explain why–and how–the concept of online trespass to chattels should be eliminated from the CFAA and analogous state law doctrines. …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Forbes Latest
Digital rights activists decry computer crime proposal
A proposal in Congress to strengthen the penalties in the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act is a “giant leap in the wrong direction” for digital rights activists calling for changes in the law after the suicide of hacktivist Aaron Swartz earlier this year. …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Computerworld Latest
Aaron Swartz Prosecutor Carmen Ortiz Admonished In 2004 For Aggressive Tactic
By The Huffington Post News Editors
WASHINGTON — U.S. Attorney Carmen Ortiz, under fire over her office’s aggressive prosecution of Internet activist Aaron Swartz, was admonished by a federal appeals court in 2004 for advocating a harsher jail term for a defendant than she had promised him in a plea-bargain agreement, according to a court document.
Ortiz, a potential candidate for Massachusetts governor or the federal judiciary prior to Swartz’s January suicide, has come under congressional criticism for allowing Assistant U.S. Attorney Stephen Heymann to pursue an aggressive Internet fraud case against Swartz. A court decision from 2004 revealed that Ortiz, while an assistant prosecutor herself, also used an aggressive tactic. A Justice Department spokesman wasn’t available to comment.
The appeals court document was brought to light in an anonymous letter to members of Congress involved in the House Oversight Committee investigation into the Justice Department‘s handling of the Swartz case.
Read More…
More on Darrell Issa
Al Franken Sends Eric Holder Letter Over ‘Remarkably Aggressive’ Aaron Swartz Prosecution
By The Huffington Post News Editors
WASHINGTON — Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) sent a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder asking for more information about the Justice Department‘s prosecution of Internet icon Aaron Swartz, writing that the case appears “remarkably aggressive — particularly when it appears that one of the principal aggrieved parties … did not support a criminal prosecution.”
Franken’s correspondance follows a January letter to Holder from Senate Minority Whip John Cornyn (R-Texas) that asked a series of pointed questions about DOJ‘s case against Swartz, including whether Swartz’s Freedom of Information Act requests had fueled his prosecution.
Franken’s brief letter calls Swartz’s death “tragic,” and the senator asks to be copied on Holder’s response to Cornyn. Franken chairs the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Privacy, Technology and the Law, which has jurisdiction over laws that Internet activists hope to change in order to prevent further prosecutions for relatively minor computer offenses.
MIT plans to release Swartz-related documents
(AP)—The president of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology has announced that the school will voluntarily make public documents related to the prosecution of late Internet freedom activist Aaron Swartz. …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Phys.org
Cyber crime punishment questioned by Internet advocacy group
Digital rights activists are using a recent security breach involving the secretive group Anonymous as an opportunity to rail against a federal anti-hacking law called the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act.
The Electronic Frontier Foundation isn’t defending the alleged actions of Matthew Keys, a former Tribune Company employee who could face as much as 25 years of jail time over federal charges accusing him of conspiring with members of Anonymous to hack into a Tribune website.
But the San Francisco-based advocacy group says current law means cyber crimes are often prosecuted much more severely than crimes of violence.
The EFF likens Keys’ case to the Justice Department’s prosecution of political activist and Internet innovator Aaron Swartz, in which he faced a maximumsentence of 35 years in prison and a $1 million fine. Swartz committed suicide in January.
To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
…read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at PCWorld
Jason Chaffetz Makes CPAC Push For Internet Freedom
By The Huffington Post News Editors
WASHINGTON — This year’s Conservative Political Action Conference has been dominated by discussions of Obamacare and gun rights, but Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) is one of a handful of Republicans making a conservative case for Internet freedom policies at the event. The Huffington Post’s Zach Carter sat down with Chaffetz to discuss his early opposition to the Stop Online Piracy Act, the Department of Justice’s case against online activist Aaron Swartz and criminal justice reform.
WATCH the discussion in the video above.
Read More…
More on Net Neutrality
Benjamin Mako Hill: Aaron Swartz MIT Memorial
On Tuesday, there was a memorial for Aaron Swartz held at the MIT Media Lab. Unfortunately, I am traveling this week and was unable to attend. As I wrote recently, I was close to Aaron. I am also, more obviously, close to MIT and the lab. It was important to me to participate in the memorial and I found a way to give a short “talk” with a video.
I think the lab plans to post a recording of the whole event but I have put the video of my own remarks below (and online in WebM). If you prefer, you can also read the text of the remarks.
Google Reader’s sunset is the dawn of ownCloud News
This post is dedicated to the memory of Aaron Swartz. Among all his contributions towards a more open Internet, Aaron was also one of the creator of RSS 1.0. Thanks, Aaron.
The first news of the day is that the fantastic ownCloud community has released ownCloud Server 5.0.0. Congratulations everyone!
The second news is that Google has decided to power down Google Reader. This is a sad news for the users of the Reader, but it’s a great opportunity for ownCloud! Google Reader will cease to exist on July 1st and their users are looking for alternatives. As you already know if you have been following this blog, in the last year I have been working on an RSS/Atom reader for ownCloud (News app). The project started as a Summer of Code project sponsored by Google itself. Actually, the original idea and most of the design choices were inspired by Google Reader. It couldn’t be otherwise, since I have been a user of that service myself for long time.
In the last August I released an alpha version of the News app, see my previous post. There has been lot of progress since. Bernhard Posselt (Raydiation) ported the app to the new ownCloud app framework and he joined me as co-maintainer of the app. Thanks to his work, the app works much better now, the user interface is faster and the code is more stable and more testable.
In the last KDEPIM sprint in Berlin, I started to write an API so that external clients can synchronize with the app. Many calls are still missing, but it’s a start. Frank Osterfeld is already using this API in an Akonadi resource that interacts with the app and that can be used by Akregator. His code is in the akregator_port branch of kdepim-runtime. If you want to use the resource, you need akregator2 from the akregator_port branch of kdepim.
I am also trying to put up a new GSoC project for a mobile app that interfaces with this API (if you are a student interested in this, please let me know).
The app was not stable enough to be shipped today with ownCloud 5 (yes, remember news number one: oC 5 released today!). We expect to release a stable version of it in less than two months (probably along with some ownCloud 5.X release). Once that will happen, I will write a post on how to migrate from Google Reader. Just to be clear, there is a big difference between ownCloud News and Google Reader. OwnCloud News is open-source (code is released under AGPL) and you can host it on your own server. And if you use KDE, you will be able to use Akregator off-line and still have all your feeds on the cloud. Google Reader will be shut down on July 1st. You will have to make a change anyway, why not making a real change!
We are developing the app in the master …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Planet KDE
Aaron Swartz Remembered As Technology Activist At SXSW
Tech luminaries and legal experts remembered Aaron Swartz as a technology and political activist at the South By Southwest conference Friday and called for changes in the legal system that prosecuted him. …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Forbes Latest
US Attorney General defends handling of Aaron Swartz case
U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder has defended the role of the prosecution in the case of the late Internet activist and innovator Aaron Swartz, stating that “there was never an intention for him to go to jail for longer than a three, four, potentially five-month range.”
“That was what the government said specifically to Mr. Swartz,” Holder told Senator John Cornyn, during an appearance before the Senate Committee on the Judiciary on Wednesday.
The plea offers made to Swartz were rejected, he added. In a plea offer, prosecutors usually agree to ask the court for a lighter sentence in return for a guilty plea.
Swartz, who committed suicide in January, was charged with wire fraud, computer fraud and other crimes for allegedly accessing and downloading over 4 million articles from the JSTOR online database through the network of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
…read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at PCWorld