 BlackbirdBuilt for SpeedPremium
join:2005-01-14
Fort Wayne, IN
kudos:3
 ·Frontier Communi..
| reply to PX Eliezer
Re: Reddit co-founder Aaron Swartz found dead. Well, he is alleged to have hacked the MIT computer and copied the journals with intent to give copies of them away - which, to me, seems more like hacking and "copyright violation" rather than outright "stealing". Stealing is usually associated with taking/carrying-away something that's not yours without permission and thereby depriving its rightful owner of it. To my knowledge, he was never alleged to have erased or otherwise removed the journals from the system.
In any case, it's always sad to see things end like this for somebody...
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“The American Republic will endure until the day Congress discovers that it can bribe the public with the public's money.” A. de Tocqueville |
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 AVDRespice, Adspice, ProspicePremium
join:2003-02-06
Onion, NJ
kudos:1 | said by Blackbird:Well, he is alleged to have hacked the MIT computer and copied the journals with intent to give copies of them away - which, to me, seems more like hacking and "copyright violation" rather than outright "stealing". he had a license to the content. The bulk downloading was probably a violation of the license as well as the "intent to distribute". But he did not hack anything.
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BlackbirdBuilt for SpeedPremium
join:2005-01-14
Fort Wayne, IN
kudos:3 Reviews:
·Frontier Communi..
| said by AVD:he had a license to the content. The bulk downloading was probably a violation of the license as well as the "intent to distribute". But he did not hack anything.
If what you note is correct, I agree. However, I was simply going by information in the article cited in the OP: quote:
... Prosecutors said Swartz hacked into MIT's system in November of 2010 after breaking into a computer wiring closet on campus. Prosecutors said he intended to distribute the articles on file-sharing websites. ...
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“The American Republic will endure until the day Congress discovers that it can bribe the public with the public's money.” A. de Tocqueville |
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Just BobPremium
join:2000-08-13
Spring Hill, FL | I have no doubt the prosecutors said that at one time, but the door was unlocked and there was no sign restricting access to the wiring closet. The trespass charge was dropped.
As to the unlocked door, that isn't uncommon. I knew a guy who found a door to a vertical cabling truck, leaned over to see what was down there, and fell in head first. Computer operators on the first floor had to rescue him. Embarrassing.
As to hacking, not so much. He did have to change his MAC address at one point. He wrote a script to automate downloading the articles to which he had legal access.
He may have violated the JSTOR TOS. Two federal courts have ruled on that issue in other cases. One court called violating the terms of service a crime. The other disagreed. If TOS violation is now a federal crime, we have a very large criminal class. That is an issue that must be resolved.
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"...an imbalance between rich and poor is the oldest and most fatal ailment of all republics." Plutarch
Judging other people is easy. Understanding them can break your heart.
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