[liberationtech] Tragic News: Aaron Swartz commits suicide

[Shava Nerad]

A lot of what I am writing on this topic is on my google+.  You don't have
to be a google subscriber.  Just go to plus.google.com and search for my
name, and you'll find my stuff.

SN

On Sun, Jan 13, 2013 at 2:45 PM, Sheila Parks
<sheilaruthparks at comcast.net>wrote:

>  Thanks, Shava
>
> I will keep on watching for your posts
>
> I am reading this list now at any rate, so should see it easily
>
> Sheila
>
>
> At 02:21 PM 1/13/2013, you wrote:
>
> I was thinking the MIT meeting would be an evening sometime later in the
> week, but I wanted to see who showed up Tuesday, and if I could get a small
> committee together so maybe a later announcement?
>
> I wanted to see if I could get an MIT person who could schedule a room.
>
> yrs,
> SN
>
> On Sun, Jan 13, 2013 at 11:34 AM, Sheila Parks <sheilaruthparks at comcast.net>
> wrote:
>  Thank you, Shava, for organizing a vigil.
>
> I work on Mon and Tues
>
> When do you think you will do the one at MIT or wiil that be right after
> the Courthouse one on Tuesday?
>
> And thank you to all of you for discussing this tragedy
>
> I don't often comment on this list but I am so glad to be here for this
> discussion
>
> I do blame MIT and the US Attorneys
>
> Sheila
>
>
> At 11:23 AM 1/13/2013, you wrote:
>
>  This is what I understand of Aaron's action.
>
> First, to be clear, JSTOR settled with Aaron last summer.
>
> Aaron was trying to raise consciousness around their model.  JSTOR does
> not pay out a penny to the author or the author's host institution.  They
> do not pay royalties to the research funders - often the taxpayer, so maybe
> you and me.  In other circumstances this would make the work public domain.
>
> The only money goes to the paper journal publisher.  That is the firewall
> consortium JSTOR represents.
>
> That is the message Aaron meant to amplify with what he likely saw as
> political/ethical art performance civil disobedience.
>
> Personally I think if he had not been on federal radar for organizing
> SOPA/PIPA nothing more would have come from it as a Harvard-connected white
> academic of a certain status.
>
> But as it is, he faced seven figures in damages and three decades in hard
> time even after he settled with JSTOR.
>
> This is the way my family has observed activists attempted to be
> neutralized by the immune system of the federal government since Eugene
> Debs.  I have three generations of witness.
>
> My instinct is that when you see resources expended out of proportion,
> look for the proportionate end.  Aaron was not being chilled for his
> potential in copying files, I suspect.  He just handed them something for
> which he could be charged.
>
> We can't let it go without response just because it is classic and
> chronic.  I am organizing a vigil at 1 Courthouse in Boston 2pm Tuesday,
> probably small, and we'll follow on from that at MIT.
>
> Federal Prosecutor Ortiz does not seem like a monster in general, and
> there is hope for some good nonviolent ends out of this.
>
> Feedback welcome.
>
> Yrs,
> --
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>
>
> Sheila Parks, Ed.D.
> Founder
> Center for Hand-Counted Paper Ballots
> Watertown, MA  02472
> 617 744 6020
> DEMOCRACY IN OUR HANDS
>  www.handcountedpaperballots.org
>  sheila at handcountedpaperballots.org
>
>
> --
> Unsubscribe, change to digest, or change password at:
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>
>
>
>
> --
>
> Shava Nerad
> shava23 at gmail.com
> --
> Unsubscribe, change to digest, or change password at:
> https://mailman.stanford.edu/mailman/listinfo/liberationtech
>
> **
>
> ** Sheila Parks, Ed.D.
> Founder
> Center for Hand-Counted Paper Ballots
> Watertown, MA  02472
> 617 744 6020
> DEMOCRACY IN OUR HANDS
>  www.handcountedpaperballots.org
> sheila at handcountedpaperballots.org
>
> --
> Unsubscribe, change to digest, or change password at:
> https://mailman.stanford.edu/mailman/listinfo/liberationtech
>



-- 

Shava Nerad
shava23 at gmail.com
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