Aaron Swartz was charged in 2011 with the unauthorized use of MIT’s JSTOR network to download millions of articles. Swartz was charged with crimes that included wire fraud, computer fraud, and unlawfully obtaining information from a protected computer. Although JSTOR did not pursue a civil case against Swartz, U.S. Attorney Carmen Ortiz vowed to “use all available resources” to investigate and prosecute cyber criminals. However, Swartz’s suicide on January 11th at the age of 26 sparked questions and triggered criticism of Ortiz and prosecutors in her office.

Sympathizers of Swartz viewed him as a hero of information. He wanted to put information into the public domain. Harvard Law professor and pioneer, Lawrence Lessig, criticized the prosecutors and described their behavior as outrageous. Swartz was a computer prodigy. He helped create Reddit, was involved in the development of the web feed format RSS, and campaigned against SOPPA legislation.

However, not everyone is pointing fingers at the prosecutors. Supporters of Ortiz and prosecutor Stephen Heymann say that the charges were charges that any good prosecutor would bring and that the charges against Swartz were “based on a fair reading of the law.”

The case was not merely about someone downloading one too many documents. Swartz allegedly had circumvented JSTOR’s identification restrictions to access articles without authorization. He had opposed JSTOR’s practice of compensating publishers, rather than authors, and sought to make those articles public. Swartz’s death has triggered numerous responses from lawmakers and activists as well. This week, a member of Congress proposed a bill that would revise the computer fraud statute that Swartz was charged under.

For more information on data breaches and hacking, please visit our technology law page.

Klemchuk LLP is an Intellectual Property (IP), Technology, Internet, and Business law firm located in Dallas, TX.  The firm offers comprehensive legal services including litigation and enforcement of all forms of IP as well as registration and licensing of patents, trademarks, trade dress, and copyrights.  The firm also provides a wide range of technology, Internet, e-commerce, and business services including business planning, formation, and financing, mergers and acquisitions, business litigation, data privacy, and domain name dispute resolution.  Additional information about the IP law firm and its IP law attorneys may be found at www.klemchuk.com.

Klemchuk LLP hosts Culture Counts, a blog devoted to the discussion of law firm culture and corporate core values with frequent topics about positive work environment, conscious capitalism, entrepreneurial management, positive workplace culture, workplace productivity, and corporate core values.