Anonymous Hacked MIT Website & Left Tribute Message For Aaron Swartz
We have just passed a few days when the shocking news of Aaron Swartz's suicide take down the entire Internet and specially the cyber world. Swartz, a political activist and computer programmer, reportedly hanged
himself last week in his Brooklyn apartment as he awaited trial on 13
felony counts for downloading and publishing roughly 4 million academic
journal articles from the database JSTOR. Hours after the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology posted a pledge to
investigate its involvement in events associated with the
suicide of Aaron
Swartz. But this step of MIT was not enough as the hacktivist group Anonymous taken this issue very seriously and started a campaign in which they targeted several websites of MIT. From 4 p.m. to 7:50 p.m. PT on Sunday evening, M.I.T.'s network lost
access to most websites, including mit.edu, where Anonymous posted a
red-lettered tribute message in Swartz's honor saying -
“Whether or not the government contributed to his suicide, the
government’s prosecution of Swartz was a grotesque miscarriage of
justice, a distorted and perverse shadow of the justice that Aaron died
fighting for — freeing the publicly-funded scientific literature from a
publishing system that makes it inaccessible to most of those who paid
for it — enabling the collective betterment of the world through the
facilitation of sharing — an ideal that we should all support,”
Kimberly Allen, the media relations manager at M.I.T., did not immediately respond to a call from TheWrap requesting comment.
M.I.T. President Rafael Reif asked computer science professor Hal
Abelson on Sunday to "lead a thorough analysis of M.I.T.'s involvement
from" in Swartz's case. According to sources The Department of Justice dropped charges against Swartz on Monday, standard policy for when a defendant dies. JSTOR, which said it settled its claims against Swartz in June 2011, said it was "saddened" to hear of his death.
"We extend our heartfelt condolences to Aaron’s family, friends, and everyone who loved, knew, and admired him," it said in a post
on its website. "He was a truly gifted person who made important
contributions to the development of the internet and the web from which
we all benefit."
Here is the full Message of Anonymous posted on MIT's website:-
"In Memoriam, Aaron Swartz, November 8, 1986 – January 11, 2013, Requiescat in pace.
A brief message from Anonymous.
Whether or not the government contributed to his suicide, the
government’s prosecution of Swartz was a grotesque miscarriage of
justice, a distorted and perverse shadow of the justice that Aaron died
fighting for — freeing the publicly-funded scientific literature from a
publishing system that makes it inaccessible to most of those who paid
for it — enabling the collective betterment of the world through the
facilitation of sharing — an ideal that we should all support.
Moreover, the situation Aaron found himself in highlights the
injustice of U.S. computer crime laws, particularly their punishment
regimes, and the highly-questionable justice of pre-trial bargaining.
Aaron’s act was undoubtedly political activism; it had tragic
consequences.
Our wishes
- We call for this tragedy to be a basis for reform of computer crime laws, and the overzealous prosecutors who use them.
- We call for this tragedy to be a basis for reform of copyright and intellectual property law, returning it to the proper principles of common good to the many, rather than private gain to the few.
- We call for this tragedy to be a basis for greater recognition of the oppression and injustices heaped daily by certain persons and institutions of authority upon anyone who dares to stand up and be counted for their beliefs, and for greater solidarity and mutual aid in response.
- We call for this tragedy to be a basis for a renewed and unwavering commitment to a free and unfettered internet, spared from censorship with equality of access and franchise for all.
For in the end, we will not be judged according to what we give, but according to what we keep to ourselves.
Aaron, we will sorely miss your friendship, and your help in building a better world. May you read in peace.
—-
Who was Aaron Swartz? A hero in the SOPA/PIPA campaign, Reddit cofounder, RSS, Demand Progress, Avaaz, etc…:
—-
Guerilla Open Access Manifesto
Information is power. But like all power, there are those who want to
keep it for themselves. The world’s entire scientific and cultural
heritage, published over centuries in books and journals, is
increasingly being digitized and locked up by a handful of private
corporations. Want to read the papers featuring the most famous results
of the sciences? You’ll need to send enormous amounts to publishers like
Reed Elsevier.
There are those struggling to change this. The Open Access Movement
has fought valiantly to ensure that scientists do not sign their
copyrights away but instead ensure their work is published on the
Internet, under terms that allow anyone to access it. But even under the
best scenarios, their work will only apply to things published in the
future. Everything up until now will have been lost.
That is too high a price to pay. Forcing academics to pay money to
read the work of their colleagues? Scanning entire libraries but only
allowing the folks at Google to read them? Providing scientific articles
to those at elite universities in the First World, but not to children
in the Global South? It’s outrageous and unacceptable.
“I agree,” many say, “but what can we do? The companies hold the
copyrights, they make enormous amounts of money by charging for access,
and it’s perfectly legal — there’s nothing we can do to stop them.” But
there is something we can, something that’s already being done: we can
fight back.
Those with access to these resources — students, librarians,
scientists — you have been given a privilege. You get to feed at this
banquet of knowledge while the rest of the world is locked out. But you
need not — indeed, morally, you cannot — keep this privilege for
yourselves. You have a duty to share it with the world. And you have:
trading passwords with colleagues, filling download requests for
friends.
Meanwhile, those who have been locked out are not standing idly by.
You have been sneaking through holes and climbing over fences,
liberating the information locked up by the publishers and sharing them
with your friends.
But all of this action goes on in the dark, hidden underground. It’s
called stealing or piracy, as if sharing a wealth of knowledge were the
moral equivalent of plundering a ship and murdering its crew. But
sharing isn’t immoral — it’s a moral imperative. Only those blinded by
greed would refuse to let a friend make a copy.
Large corporations, of course, are blinded by greed. The laws under
which they operate require it — their shareholders would revolt at
anything less. And the politicians they have bought off back them,
passing laws giving them the exclusive power to decide who can make
copies.
There is no justice in following unjust laws. It’s time to come into
the light and, in the grand tradition of civil disobedience, declare our
opposition to this private theft of public culture.
We need to take information, wherever it is stored, make our copies
and share them with the world. We need to take stuff that’s out of
copyright and add it to the archive. We need to buy secret databases and
put them on the Web. We need to download scientific journals and upload
them to file sharing networks. We need to fight for Guerilla Open
Access.
With enough of us, around the world, we’ll not just send a strong
message opposing the privatization of knowledge — we’ll make it a thing
of the past. Will you join us?
Aaron Swartz
July 2008, Eremo, Italy
—–
You were the best of us; may you yet bring out the best in us.
-Anonymous, Jan 13, 2013.
—-
(Postscript: We tender apologies to the administrators at MIT for
this temporary use of their websites. We understand that it is a time of
soul-searching for all those within this great institution as much —
perhaps for some involved even more so — than it is for the greater
internet community. We do not consign blame or responsibility upon MIT
for what has happened, but call for all those feel heavy-hearted in
their proximity to this awful loss to acknowledge instead the
responsibility they have — that we all have — to build and safeguard a
future that would make Aaron proud, and honour the ideals and dedication
that burnt so brightly within him by embodying them in thought and word
and action..."
VOGH Reaction:- There is nothing much to say, we are speechless after what happened. Swartz suicide is surely a defeat of freedom. Last but not least VOGH team along with the whole cyber world will miss Aaron Swartz, RIP!
-Source (TC & Wired)
