Did MIT Help Prosecute Aaron Swartz?
1,128 views · Published 14 January 2013 · 0:46 · Indexed 20 September 2026
Channel: Slate · 2013 · Science & Technology
MIT will launch an internal investigation into its role in the criminal case against Aaron Swartz, the digital activist who took his own life in New York on Friday. Grief over Swartz's death has been tinged with anger about the decision by the U.S. attorney's office to prosecute him. The case stemmed from accusations that Swartz used MIT's network to provide free access to scholarly articles from JSTOR, part of his abiding belief in freedom of information. MIT stood by while the U.S. attorney's office pursued charges that could have led to 35 years in prison and $1 million in fines. Swartz was the programming prodigy who had key roles in the development of RSS feeds and later the creation of Reddit. He was 26.
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