Why Did Aaron Swartz Face More Prison Time Than Killers?

"On Friday, Internet pioneer and open information activist Aaron Swartz took his own life at the age of 26. At the time of his death, Swartz was under indictment for logging into JSTOR, a database of scholarly articles, and rapidly downloading those articles with the intent to make them public. If Swartz had lived to be convicted of the charges against him, he faced 50 years or more in a federal prison."*

Aaron Swartz was a brilliant hacktivist who stood for the spread of knowledge before he committed suicide at 26. He was facing more prison time for spreading academic articles on the internet publicly. What was it about Swartz that threatened the federal government so much? Cenk Uygur breaks it down.

*Read more from Ian Millhiser/ Think Progress:
http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2013...

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• Category

  News & Politics

[Scythe Vendetta]

LOL...freaking bullshit system, Fuck logic

[Mônica Miranda]

American government has covertly advanced neuroscience to the point of reading any person's mind no matter how far he/she is and no matter which laguage he/she speaks.

Look at patent "US3951134 A" granted to Robert Malech in 1976

Neuroscience has evolved and learned to link brain waves to phonemes and so do mind reading. Neuroscience learned how to do EEG wirelessly and remotely.

Neuroscience has learnt to pick up brain signatures that every person has and trace that person wherever he goes.

[dennismstamps]

RIP Aaron. You were harassed, bullied, and terrorized by your government (and ultimately by those who control your government). It's time for humanity to rise up and ask, WHO ARE THE REAL PIRATES?

[Brock Jones]

It's a bit ridiculous how corrupted the American government is when someone does something heroic and helps the American public from information it's own government is with holding from it's people and he get's a jail sentence equivelent to 2 armed bank robbing's.

[max31416]

Thank you Cenk for saying what must be said.

[Thomas Scully]

RIP Aaron.

[badboy4202]

I had a walk in closet once like that, I loved it. All red cedar, smells so wonderful. I miss it now

[AmetKhos]

I once had an apartment that was completely lined with cedar.From ceiling to flooring. It was very nice, smelled good to, as you can imagine.