The death of Reddit co-creator and online rights activist Aaron Swartz has sparked a rise in politically-motivated hack attacks, often dubbed ‘Hacktivism’.
Swartz, 26, hanged himself at his apartment in Brooklyn on Friday night, with the death confirmed as a suicide.
Swartz developed the technology behind Reddit, a hugely popular user-driven news and online content site. Reddit was acquired by Condé Nast in 2006.
However, Swartz took his own life just weeks before the start of his federal trial related to charges in 2011 that he downloaded nearly 5 million academic articles from JSTOR, a subscription service used by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), in a bid to distribute them free on file-sharing sites.
Swartz had pleaded not guilty to initially four, then 13, felony charges, including wire and computer fraud. He faced up to 35 years in prison if he were found guilty.
Days after news of Swartz’ suicide, hackers affiliated with Anonymous launched an attack against the US Department of Justice and the MIT.
The hacktivists defaced pages the sites and posted messages in support of Swartz and his fight against the government over allegations of piracy and intellectual property violations.
Meanwhile, The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) expressed hope that the incident will lead to more legal clarity.
The group noted in a post to its DeepLinks blog that had the case gone to trial, Swartz could have faced extensive fines and jail time for doing little more than reposting academic reports.
“The government should never have thrown the book at Aaron for accessing MIT’s network and downloading scholarly research. However, some extremely problematic elements of the law made it possible,” the EFF said.
“We can trace some of those issues to the US criminal justice system as an institution, and I suspect others will write about that in the coming days.”
Swartz’ family member have said he was pressured by government and academic officials.
“Aaron’s death isn’t simply a personal tragedy. It is the product of a criminal justice system rife with intimidation and prosecutorial overreach,” Swartz’s family and his girlfriend Taren Stinebrickner-Kauffman said in a statement.
Reddit, a user-driven news and online content site, was developed in part on technology developed by Swartz. Reddit was acquired by Condé Nast in 2006.
Decisions made by officials in the Massachusetts U.S. Attorney’s office and at MIT contributed to his death,” the family said. “The U.S. Attorney’s office pursued an exceptionally harsh array of charges, carrying potentially over 30 years in prison, to punish an alleged crime that had no victims.”
JSTOR reclaimed the academic articles from Swartz and didn’t press charges. Last week, JSTOR said it would offer free access to a limited number of journal articles in its archives.
JSTOR on its website said it was “deeply saddened,” by the news of Swartz’s death, adding that Swartz made “important contributions” to the development of the Internet.
At age 14, Swartz helped create the now widely used online information-distribution tool RSS. He later founded Demand Progress, an advocacy group focused on fighting Internet censorship.
