NNSquad - Network Neutrality Squad
[ NNSquad ] The Many Killers of Aaron Swartz
The Many Killers of Aaron Swartz
http://lauren.vortex.com/archive/001006.html
There are days when sitting down to write is a joy. This isn't one
of them.
I've been accused of pacing like a caged animal while thinking, and of
my initial observable reactions to tragedy seeming more analytical
than emotional.
And truth be told, today I have indeed worn a deep furrow in my cage,
and my protective channeling of Mr. Spock is very much in full bloom.
There's time for crying later.
In the case of Aaron Swartz's suicide at age 26, we begin at the end
of the story, can flashback to origins, and in doing so we find a very
broad, and to some extent largely predictable, cast of characters and
events.
Entangled with the immediate horror of Aaron's death are a set of
ironies suitable for a Shakespearean drama.
It's been noted that Aaron apparently took his life two years to the
day after his arrest by MIT authorities for the JSTOR-related
break-ins and thefts of which he had been accused and was awaiting
trial. And the fact that just a couple of days ago, it was announced
that JSTOR documents would (on a limited basis) become available for
free public access is also impossible to ignore. To speculate that
both of these points played into Aaron's thinking, given the public
knowledge that he had been struggling with depression for years before
any of these events took place, seems entirely reasonable, and
immensely disturbing.
But the awful irony is that none of this needed to have occurred
at all.
For the ultimate outcome of the underlying battle in which Aaron and
others in the "information should be free" movement have been
fighting -- whether one agrees with this perspective or not -- has already
been decided, and neither sacrifices nor crucifictions are likely to change
the long-term course of events.
Indeed, the traditional concept of copyright and content control is
already doomed by technological changes -- the ability to quickly
copy, store, preserve, mirror, and communicate data around the world
nearly instantaneously.
Business models predicated on limiting access to data, either by
assuming time and expense in duplication and transfer, or via false
confidence in fragile Digital Rights Management (DRM) and other
so-called "anti-piracy" measures, are rapidly becoming zombies now,
still acting as if their old status quo could last forever, while the
real world passes them by.
True, this process has not proceeded as rapidly as some would like.
It is, in many respects, like an enormous steamroller lumbering toward
a destination that is already set and immutable. And like when
dealing with a steamroller, anyone who gets in its path, either to try
block its progress or even to urge it onward, runs the risk of being
crushed by its plodding yet relentless movement.
It's tempting to oversimplify the tragedy in this case, but the
players are many and there is painful blame to spread far and wide.
Major content producers, by pushing for the criminalization of
associated "hacking" and data thefts to be treated more harshly in
many cases than crimes of violence -- all to try protect their
obsolete business models -- carry much of the guilt.
The politicians who then acted to create associated draconian
penalties subject to overzealous invocation, and the publicity-seeking
prosecutors who use prosecutorial discretion as a lethal weapon,
certainly share the blame as well.
Saddest to say, Aaron himself played a major role too, voluntarily
painting a giant target on his own back, not just through the scope of
the unauthorized data copying of which he was accused, but by
reportedly physically entering MIT network wiring closets and planting
computers there for months at a time as part of the process.
That Aaron felt he was morally justified in his actions is clear --
and unfortunately irrelevant to the government's interest in "making
an example" of his behaviors in particular.
And while it's obvious to virtually all observers that the government
vastly overstepped the bounds of appropriate prosecution in this case,
it is also sadly true that their reaction to this sort of situation --
given the recently toughened laws that had been put in place at the
time -- should not have come as an enormous surprise. Remember that
steamroller.
Which brings us back to the present, and the needless death of a young
man who really had only begun to live.
While the sorts of theoretical maximum sentences and fines that have
been discussed for his case sound very alarming, the reality is that
federal sentencing guidelines, especially for relatively young first
offenders, point to vastly lessor penalties, especially when the
government proceeded to prosecution without the support of the
technically aggrieved parties, as in this case.
But that's small comfort in the end. Nobody wants to go to prison at
all, and the personal financial result from such a trial, even with
the best possible outcomes for a defendant, would still probably be
ruinous.
I likened all this to a Shakespearean drama earlier -- but perhaps a
Greek tragedy is more apt an analogy.
When we mere imperfect mortals deem to pit even our most righteous
beliefs against the timorous gods of old, it is simultaneously an act
of faith and the voluntary assumption of enormous risk, for the gods
of obsolescence still possess mighty powers indeed.
In the end, the old gods of information scarcity and control will
indeed die, and more open models will win the future.
Until then, as the path leading to that future continues to be laid
through battles yet to come, it might do us well to ponder the many
killers of Aaron Swartz, and the very human guilt and frailties that
we all -- each and ever one of us -- must jointly share.
Rest in peace, Aaron.
--Lauren--
Lauren Weinstein (lauren@vortex.com): http://www.vortex.com/lauren
Co-Founder: People For Internet Responsibility: http://www.pfir.org/pfir-info
Founder:
- Network Neutrality Squad: http://www.nnsquad.org
- PRIVACY Forum: http://www.vortex.com/privacy-info
- Data Wisdom Explorers League: http://www.dwel.org
- Global Coalition for Transparent Internet Performance: http://www.gctip.org
Member: ACM Committee on Computers and Public Policy
Lauren's Blog: http://lauren.vortex.com
Google+: http://vortex.com/g+lauren / Twitter: http://vortex.com/t-lauren
Tel: +1 (818) 225-2800 / Skype: vortex.com
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