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Ever heard of Aaron Swartz?

Discussion in 'General' started by Steeltoe, Jan 12, 2013.

  1. PMooney Jr.

    PMooney Jr. Chasing the Old Man


    Lol, negative. Your compassionate coworker.
     
  2. Harp

    Harp Well-Known Member

    He is to a large portion of the "hacker" community: news.ycombinator.com
     
  3. Steeltoe

    Steeltoe What's my move?

    I'm just sayin I'm grateful for RSS feeds and the dude(s) who created it. Dang.
     
  4. Mr Sunshine

    Mr Sunshine Banned

    I am not a public figure for Microsoft. Stop trying to make me one. My posting on this site is not a reflection of what I do at work. It is simply my own personal feelings and opinion.

    If you want to say it is a reflection of my employer than you are sadly mistaken. You also then seem to be the type of person that because they pay me, they control what I do, own, think, etc which far from the truth.
     
  5. Mr Sunshine

    Mr Sunshine Banned

    Cause and effect. What happened first.

    Did the killing of one self because they see no way out have the effect of people feeling bad for them thus cause the next person to do the same thing due to the attention the first person got from doing it?

    So how do you break the cycle? You don't give people who kill themselves any attention thus as a show that killing yourself won't bring any attention. By doing such a thing you eliminate a documented theory about why a large number of people commit suicide.

    The people I feel very sorry for is the couple of close friends who were around him near the time it happened....they have to be wondering to themselves why they didn't see it coming or what else could they have done. They will have to live the rest of their lives asking themselves these questions. They will wake up from a dream confused, angry and depressed that they did not prevent it. They will be obsessed with making sure it doesn't happen again.

    So with all of this focus on one weak individual the people who matter are ignored and those people can be helped....so let's help them.
     
  6. Steeltoe

    Steeltoe What's my move?

    Must be cool to just know everything about everyone's state of mind. Amazing.
     
  7. SpeedyE

    SpeedyE Experimental prototype, never meant for production

    Respectfully, I never glorified it.
    I glorified what he did for "Us" in his short life.

    As far as him taking his life, I feel sorry for any human being that is in so much turmoil and pain, that they feel their only way out is to end their life, to end their suffering.
    He did more in his life than you or I ever did, or will do.

    Let me know if you get depressed and mixed up, if you are ever looking at being ass raped and pumped full of AIDS for the next 35 years, in Federal prison. I'll be you piss and moan when you have to take your leathers off to take a shit, between 2nd and 3rd call.

    Get some empathy for other's plights, it would look good on you.
     
    Last edited: Jan 16, 2013
  8. SpeedyE

    SpeedyE Experimental prototype, never meant for production

    If you truly think that's what he was thinking as he was asphyxiating, you are completely and utterly INSANE!
    You are a callous man :down:
     
    Last edited: Jan 16, 2013
  9. SpeedyE

    SpeedyE Experimental prototype, never meant for production

    I doubt it
     
  10. SpeedyE

    SpeedyE Experimental prototype, never meant for production

    No doubt!
    What's the old adage, don't judge anyone if you haven't walked in their shoes.
     
  11. SethG

    SethG Well-Known Member

    There are a few different moving parts to the whole deal. Aaron runs in circles where many people are phenomenally rich and have been instrumental in the actual construction and operation of the Internet. As young as he was, I'm sure these people were pretty influential in his life.

    For some reason, there's a huge interest in capturing and widely distributing semi-interesting content for free on the theory that information and art should basically be free to all. I understand the concept because most of these guys writing esoteric information in journals would do well to increase their exposure and get paid more in their profession, yet they want it protected. Content creators often have this overpowering desire to keep things locked up and charge for marginal content.

    All of this kicked ratcheted up quite a bit in the 80's when BBS systems allowed people to upload software and share it semi-privately. Software companies convinced sympathizers in the Justice department to think of software theft in terms of retail pricing. So a 9th grader that downloads photoshop would have paid $500 bucks if it hadn't been available for free, so $500 was just stolen from them. The short-sightedness is amazing; software like that is hard to pick up, the kid downloading it for free learned it early and if he ever ended up in a company that needed it, they would gladly pay. Instead of focusing on retail, they should have been focusing on companies.

    Whatever the case, they managed to get huge penalties built up around this "crime" because they had to leverage grand theft laws to make it a crime in the first place and the proportional penalties rode along with it. Then mandatory-minimum sentencing hit the fed space and that was the end of it.

    What Aaron did was amazingly dangerous, he downloaded the entire JSTOR database that colleges spend massive sums on and was intending on putting it on the Internet where it would invariably become integrated with Google. Someone at JSTOR hit the panic button immediately but again was highly misguided because students are taxed for JSTOR, it's non-voluntary. So, whether or not the information was on the Internet, every college was still going to pay for it.

    While Aaron made a stupid decision (wait, an immature and introverted kid doing something stupid?) he was very likely to fall under a massive sentence. Many are not aware that after such a sentence, he would have been forbidden from using a computer or the Internet for many years. Given a sentence of any significant length, he was going to be forced to start a new life doing something else, like mopping floors or delivering pizzas.

    And he was going to prison, believe that. He was facing a 35 year sentence so that he would plea bargain to 5-10 + the lengthy computer ban.

    It's pretty astounding that some people could lack sympathy for him and accept the system that would put someone so talented into that situation where he had to choose between a 180 degree life change or a weak moment of suicide.
     
  12. cBJr

    cBJr Well-Known Member

    The system didn't cause him to steal on a large scale and face large scale penalties. He wasn't put to death by the system. He chose that route. I happen to think that is very sad that he felt such turmoil that he felt it was his only choice, but it was his and noone else's.
     
  13. Flex Axlerod

    Flex Axlerod Banned

    Dont waste your time dude. You are going to get nothing but a bunch of bullshit machismo out all the internet tough guys around here. :rolleyes:
     
  14. HPPT

    HPPT !!!

    I can't believe this. I mean, I'm reading this shit with my own eyes, so it must be true that you wrote it. But I can't believe it.

    What you're basically saying is that someone who is at the lowest point of his or her life decides to commit suicide just so they can get some attention? To what end? To feel better? You know that they are dead after committing suicide, right?

    Don't confuse people threatening to commit suicide with the act itself.
     
  15. Mongo

    Mongo Administrator

    Martyrs are killed by the oppressors whoever they may be - he killed himself, anyone trying to make him a martyr is wrong.
     
  16. Mongo

    Mongo Administrator

    You were doing good until this point - he made the choice to knowingly steal content. This is not some moron kid downloading his favorite thrash metal, this was a genius who knew exactly what he was doing and what laws he was breaking. He made his choice to break the law. That is the point where he also made the choice to accept the consequences.

    Why is everyone ignoring his depression issues too? That's more than likely the main factor, the jail time and all the other bullshit is much more unlikely than his chemical imbalance.
     
  17. Mongo

    Mongo Administrator

    Do you commit crimes and expect no consequence or do you choose to not commit crimes?
     
  18. SpeedyE

    SpeedyE Experimental prototype, never meant for production

    Sean, respectfully, the crime(s) he committed were selfless....he was attempting to better society. He did not commit this crime for personal gain.
    I think he is/was an incredible selfless person.
    Some crimes do not justify the jail time. I think murder/rape/kid-xxx are true crimes that deserve decades in prison....not what he did.

    I know you are smarter than me, and know you can chew-up my statement(s).....but I still feel that he was facing far more than than he deserved.
    I am still grateful of what he did for us, and what he was attempting to do for us.
    I am sad he hit rock bottom and did what he did :(
     
    Last edited: Jan 16, 2013
  19. Mongo

    Mongo Administrator

    So what if they were crimes YOU consider okay to commit? What in the world does that have to do with anything? He knew it was illegal, he knew the punishment for the crime. He still chose to break the law. None of that has a damn thing to do with whether or not you personally agree with the law.

    Selfless? Bullshit. He killed himself, that is far from selfless, it's pretty damned selfish really.
     
  20. SpeedyE

    SpeedyE Experimental prototype, never meant for production

    I told you, LOL! :D
     

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