Entire library journal editorial board resigns, citing 'crisis of conscience' after death of Aaron Swartz. My thoughts on Aaron Swartz, and the benefits of openness. Aaron's Army. Do not think for a moment that Aaron's work on JSTOR was the random act of a lone hacker, some kind of crazy, spur-of-the-moment bulk download. JSTOR had long come in for withering criticism from the net. Larry Lessig called JSTOR a moral outrage in a talk and I suppose I have to confess he was quoting me. We weren't the only ones fanning those flames. Sequestering knowledge behind pay walls—making scientific journals only available to a few kids fortunate enough to be at fancy universities and charging $20 an article for the remaining 99% of us—was a festering wound.
It offended many people. It embarrassed many who wrote those articles that their work had become somebody's profit margin, a members-only country club of knowledge. Many of us helped fan those flames. But JSTOR was just one of many battles. Aaron wasn't a lone wolf, he was part of an army, and I had the honor of serving with him for a decade. We worked together on a dozen government databases. We did nothing wrong. Aaron Swartz n'était pas un hacker solitaire mais le membre d'une armée. Nous ne sommes pas des criminels et nous sommes de plus en plus nombreux à rejoindre les rangs de l’armée d’Aaron Swartz.
Le 24 janvier dernier s’est déroulée une émouvante cérémonie à la mémoire d’Aaron Swartz, dans ce lieu hautement symbolique qu’est l’église de San Francisco qui abrite l’Internet Archive. Parmi les personnalités qui se sont succédées, il y eut ainsi sa fiancée Taren Stinebrickner-Kauffman, le fondateur d’Internet Archive Brewster Kahle ( allocution remarquée par Calimaq qui en a fait un billet dédié) et son ami Carl_Malamud, fondateur de Public.Resource.org. C’est cette dernière intervention que nous vous proposons traduite ci-dessous (disponible ici en vidéo). « J’aimerais que nous puissions changer le passé, mais c’est impossible. Par contre, nous pouvons changer le futur, et nous le devons. » L’armée d’Aaron Aaron’s Army Carl Malamud - 24 janvier 2013 - PublicRessource.org(Traduction : brandelune, aKa, Lamessen, KoS, Pouhiou, Garburst, Luc, Tr4sK, Astalaseven)
Lisarein: I have been radicalized. #aaronsw... Anonymous Retaliates for Swartz’s Suicide. Anonymous Retaliates for Swartz’s Suicide Posted on Jan 26, 2013 Members of Anonymous, a collection of digital pranksters working for democracy in the dark places of the Web, said Saturday that they had hijacked the site of the U.S. Sentencing Commission as well as a trove of sensitive documents to take revenge for the death of Internet freedom advocate Aaron Swartz. Swartz has become a martyr for hackers and activists fighting for a free and open Internet since he killed himself just over two weeks ago in the face of a threatened prison sentence many have said would have been disproportionate to his crime. Shortly after his death, Anonymous hacked MIT for its role in enabling a U.S. prosecutor to push for a brutal punishment for Swartz.
“The website of the commission, an independent agency of the judicial branch involved in sentencing, was replaced with a message warning that when Swartz killed himself two weeks ago ‘a line was crossed,’ ” The Guardian reported. Aarons ArkAngel: Aaron Swartz to receive posthumous 'Freedom of Information' award for open access advocacy. Internet activist and Reddit co-founder Aaron Swartz is slated to receive posthumous recognition in Washington for his efforts promoting free access to taxpayer-funded research.
The James Madison Freedom of Information Award is administered by the American Library Association, and recognizes "individuals who have championed, protected and promoted public access to government information and the public’s right to know national information. " The award will be presented by Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-CA), who received the honor last year for her work in defeating the SOPA copyright bill, and recently rallied in support of Swartz after his suicide in January. Swartz had faced charges under the decades-old Computer Fraud and Abuse Act for downloading a large amount of academic research articles from the JSTOR database at MIT.
The White House has also begun pushing for open access The award will be accepted by Swartz's family this Friday at the Newseum in Washington, DC. Update: Rep.