Aaron Swartz, the founder of the nonprofit Demand Progress and a fellow at Harvard University’s Safra Centre for Ethics, was arrested last month for downloading 4.8 million JSTOR articles from a server at MIT. If convicted, he faces up to 35 years and prison and fines of up to $1,000,000. The District Attorney’s press release accuses Swartz of “stealing” the documents “with the purpose of distributing through file-sharing sites,” but the indictment does not accuse Swartz of this – rather, he is charged with wire and computer fraud, unlawfully obtaining information from a protected computer, and for recklessly damaging a protected computer.
In a statement, Demand Progress Executive Director compared the government’s indictment to “trying to put someone in jail for allegedly checking too many books out of the library.” JSTOR announced that it is not interested in pressing charges, and MIT has apparently reached a private settlement with Swartz.
Original Documents:
- United States of America v. Aaron Swartz. (indictment)
- United States Attorney Carmen M. Ortiz, District of Massachusetts. Press Release. “Alleged Hacker Charged with Stealing Over Four Million Documents from MIT Network.” July 19, 2011.
- JSTOR Statement: Misuse Incident and Criminal Case. July 19, 2011.
- Demand Progress press release. Federal Government Indicts Former Demand Progress Executive Director For Downloading Too Many Journal Articles. July 19, 2011.
Selected News and Blogs:
- M.G. Zimeta. “Swartz v. United States.” August 3, 2011.
- Ryan Singal for Wired. “Rogue Academic Downloader Busted by MIT Webcam Stakeout, Arrest Report Says.” July 27, 2011.
- Mike Masnick for TechDirt. “You Know What’s Missing From The Aaron Swartz Indictment? Any Mention Of Copyright.” July 20, 2011.
- John Schwartz for the New York Times. Open-Access Advocate Is Arrested for Huge Download. July 19, 2011.
