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AVD
Respice, Adspice, Prospice
Premium Member
join:2003-02-06
Onion, NJ

1 recommendation

AVD to Blackbird

Premium Member

to Blackbird

Re: Reddit co-founder Aaron Swartz found dead.

said by Blackbird:

said by PX Eliezer704:

... Swartz pleaded not guilty. His federal trial on computer fraud charges was to begin next month....

»www.cbsnews.com/8301-205 ··· nd-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".

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.

Blackbird
Built for Speed
Premium Member
join:2005-01-14
Fort Wayne, IN

Blackbird

Premium Member

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. ...
Just Bob
Premium Member
join:2000-08-13
Spring Hill, FL

Just Bob

Premium Member

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.