Reddit Co-Founder Indicted For Stealing 4 Million Documents from M.I.T. and JSTOR
- Posted on July 19, 2011 at 7:00pm by
Christopher Santarelli
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Reddit Co-founder Aaron Swartz could face up to 35 years in prison and a $1 million fine if convicted on charges filed by the Massachusetts U.S. Attorney alleging that the 24-year-old programmer stole over four million documents from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and JSTOR, the popular article archiving site. The New York Times reports:
“Demand Progress said on its site that it appeared Mr. Swartz was ‘being charged with allegedly downloading too many scholarly journal articles from the Web.’ It quoted the group’s executive director, David Segal, as saying, ‘It’s like trying to put someone in jail for allegedly checking too many books out of the library.’
The charges filed against Mr. Swartz include wire fraud, computer fraud, obtaining information from a protected computer and criminal forfeiture.
‘Stealing is stealing whether you use a computer command or a crowbar, and whether you take documents, data or dollars,’ said Ms.Ortiz (Massachusetts U.S. Attorney) in the press release.”
The press release elaborated that Mr. Swartz broke into a restricted area of M.I.T. and entered a computer wiring closet where he apparently accessed the M.I.T. computer network and took millions of documents from JSTOR. JSTOR is a subscription-based not–for–profit service that provides scholars, researchers, and students, use of a wide range of content from thousands of academic journals and scholarly publications.
Upon early news of the arrest, some in the tech community have come to Swartz’s defense.Wired.com‘s Ryan Singel seemed puzzled, and claims the government is charging a well-known coder for violating federal hacking laws for downloading articles from a subscription database service that M.I.T. had given him access to.
“The feds clearly think they have a substantial hacking case on their hands, even though Swartz used guest accounts to access the network and is not accused of finding a security hole to slip through or using stolen credentials, as hacking is typically defined.
In essence, Swartz is accused of felony hacking for violating MIT and JSTOR’s terms of service. That legal theory has had mixed success — a federal court judge dismissed that argument in the Lori Drew cyber-bullying case, but it was later re-used with more success in a case brought against ticket scalpers who used automated means to buy tickets faster from Ticketmaster’s computer system.”
Swartz is a online political activist who created a site called Infogami that later merged with the social news site Reddit, owned by parent company Conde Nast who also owns Wired. He has had writings published on a variety of topics, especially “the corrupting influence of big money on institutions including nonprofits, the media, politics, and public opinion.” Swartz founded and directs the nonprofit group Demand Progress, which calls itself a political action group hoping to change public policy that relates to the Internet.
In 2008 Swartz was investigated for “exfiltrating” public records when he installed a small PERL script in the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals library in Chicago, but the case was dropped by the FBI.
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Coady
Posted on July 21, 2011 at 6:34pmI love all these people that have jumped to his defense. For the average conservative a crime is a crime no matter who does it. For the average liberal a crime is only a crime if a conservative does it. If it is a fellow liberal then they say he was only exercising his or her rights. Just as they seem to think that William Ayers was exercising his constitutional rights when he bombed police stations and the Pentagon. Gotta love that twisted double standard and warped illogic of theirs.
Report Post »captaingrumpy
Posted on July 21, 2011 at 5:42pmThi sounds as though he knows how to get what he wants on the site without breaking the law as it is written. The prosecutors don’t have the laws that would catch him,and they know it.
Report Post »imreddog
Posted on July 20, 2011 at 1:33pmI say that they should give the grinning idiot the max, and make him serve the entire time. Until the authorities do this, the “really stupids” will continue.
Report Post »katefromsc
Posted on July 21, 2011 at 3:58pmUnless he was writing about the corrupting influence of george soros money on media, politics, non profits and public opinion and presidential elections ! I’m sure he was on it !
Report Post »santramir
Posted on July 20, 2011 at 12:59pmdoes MIT stands for Massachussets Institute of Technology ?? add an O for Obsolete Technology
Report Post »Walkabout
Posted on July 20, 2011 at 9:41am“….he entered an MIT network closet, “hard-wired into the network and assigned himself two IP addresses. He hid the Acer laptop and a succession of external storage drives under a box in the closet, so that they would not be obvious to anyone who might enter the closet.””
Guilty!
I don’t know what pricing on articles on JSTOR should be, but he is guilty.
How much should a person at non profit make? It should be ball park with a person doing the same job in private industry otherwise it is theft.
Report Post »Walkabout
Posted on July 20, 2011 at 9:37am“JSTOR is a subscription-based not–for–profit service that provides scholars, researchers, and students, use of a wide range of content from thousands of academic journals and scholarly publications.”
Not for Profit? Getting articles is expensive. It is that friction that economists talk about. Should it be free? Many if not most people don’t appreciate things that are free. They don’t conserve them they waste them. Or at the very least they don’t want to pay the cost of maintenance. This I believe.
Report Post »Still I found it impedes research. Haven’t worked this out.
hempstead1944
Posted on July 20, 2011 at 8:51amHe should have gone into politics……more kindred spirts there.
Report Post »ObserverOnTheHill
Posted on July 20, 2011 at 6:58amMeanwhile, as they spend resources to prosecute this guy, the perpetrators of Operation “Fast and Furious” and “Project Gunrunner” are still running around and another thousand illegals have crossed the border.
Report Post »nysparkie
Posted on July 20, 2011 at 8:14amYou are absolutely right. They bust a few MC gang members but give out hundreds and hundreds of weapons to other gangs? WT F!! Someone prosecute Holder and his anti 2d amendment minions.
Report Post »sadmanwhossane
Posted on July 20, 2011 at 1:27amhe’ll walk.
Report Post »Mr.ManZ
Posted on July 19, 2011 at 11:52pmThis is Massachusetts where George Soros Liberals run wild and lawless after all, and like Chicago is ultimately ruled my thugs and thiefs (Obama a prime example) apparently so is Massachusetts.
Report Post »let us prey
Posted on July 20, 2011 at 9:55amMany undesireables in that state proudly call themselves massholes.
Report Post »SpencerG
Posted on July 19, 2011 at 11:49pmI think this story was better reported by Techdirt.com– http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20110719/13282015167/feds-charge-aaron-swartz-with-felony-hacking-downloading-ton-academic-research.shtml
Report Post »LaurieG
Posted on July 20, 2011 at 9:19amI found this comment interesting. Dispite the liberal spin in the article which amounts to: what he did wasn’t so bad…
“Anonymous Coward, Jul 19th, 2011 @ 2:15pm
You didn’t actually say this did you?
It doesn’t looked like Swartz actually “hacked” into anything. He went onto MIT’s campus and logged in as a guest, as MIT allows.
“….he entered an MIT network closet, “hard-wired into the network and assigned himself two IP addresses. He hid the Acer laptop and a succession of external storage drives under a box in the closet, so that they would not be obvious to anyone who might enter the closet.”
So you believe a lot of MIT guests sneak into a closet to log in?
Sometime later…
“As Swartz entered the wiring closet, he held his bicycle helmet like a mask to shield his face, looking through ventilation holes in the helmet. Swartz then removed his computer equipment from the closet, put it in his backpack, and left, again masking his face with the bicycle helmet before peering through a crack in the double doors and cautiously stepping out.”
I can hardly wait for the jury to see the security footage. At least now there is no question of the underlying reason of his and Demand Progress’s opposition to Protect IP. This punk doesn‘t respect anyone’s intellectual property. “
Report Post »Leader1776
Posted on July 20, 2011 at 6:50pmNo it wasn’t. Read it. They have their own slant.
Report Post »kwatch
Posted on July 19, 2011 at 9:24pmnever heard of the site but looks like he was a baaaaaaaaad boy.
Report Post »THE EQUALIZER
Posted on July 19, 2011 at 9:24pmWow. Imagine that, a creep that stole ideas to get rich. Thomas Edison and Bill Gates and other thieving mutts come to mind.
Report Post »fastfacts
Posted on July 19, 2011 at 8:38pmHAVE YOU SEEN THE FBI HAS BEEN TAKING DOWN THE HACKERS THAT…
Went after Sony, MasterCard, Amazon, etc, etc, etc: they have thrown 16 of them into prison and have more to go: http://url2it.com/gaag
Report Post »scr_north
Posted on July 19, 2011 at 8:36pmDammit, can‘t anybody grab Obama’s college transcripts? I mean they’d make far more interesting reading.
Report Post »Chuck Stein
Posted on July 20, 2011 at 2:32amGood point. I wonder if those records have actually been destroyed.
Report Post »POdVet
Posted on July 20, 2011 at 9:13amSorry I disagree. Obama’s college transcripts would be very humorous yes, but not “interesting” Honestly how interesting would it be to read…F F F F F F F F F F F F F F etc etc etc.
Report Post »Leader1776
Posted on July 20, 2011 at 6:51pmLike the rest of his professional life, nothing there.
Report Post »claycopolitics
Posted on July 19, 2011 at 8:32pmReddit is a great tool, but full of liberals, we need more conservatives on there.
Report Post »ying
Posted on July 19, 2011 at 8:19pmJust read about Henri Poincaré on Wikipedia. You will understand that this man was doing the same thing that Einstein had done to Poincare’.
Report Post »ohiowordguy
Posted on July 21, 2011 at 12:59amWikipedia? Really? For accurate information?
*mmmfff!*
*Snicker*
Bwahahahahaha!
Report Post »Jeffersonian in CA
Posted on July 19, 2011 at 8:18pmA few years in one of our fine penal institutions will have this scoundrel bleeding out his arse and thinking twice about making another foolish mistake like this.
Report Post »ying
Posted on July 19, 2011 at 8:16pmHe was doing the same thing that Einstein had done, who stole the theory of relativity from Poincare. There’s something there that he wanted to take credit for.
Report Post »argentos47
Posted on July 19, 2011 at 8:13pmInteresting to note that this article doesn’t mention the fact that the alleged victim has settled any and all claims against Aaron. They have explained that they have suffered no loss or damages and has even petitioned the government NOT to press charges. All politics aside, common sense should reign here. There is no victim, there is no crime. Another case of the federal government over reaching it’s boundaries.
Report Post »HellPhish89
Posted on July 20, 2011 at 4:00amif a law was broken, the “victim” doesnt really have a say in the matter..
the whole thing leaves a “wtf” thought because MA is uber lib, just like him. me thinks… more to the story
Report Post »MrObvious
Posted on July 20, 2011 at 8:50amIf he had access permissions and used them, he’s not guilty of breaking and entering (the crowbar example). If he violated his terms of service agreement, then the provider had the right to terminate his account. If he used the server as a platform to hack into other servers or to access private information that he did not have access to, then they might have something.
We don’t have enough facts to know. Simply assuming they must have something is naive.
Report Post »GadsdenPatriot
Posted on July 19, 2011 at 7:41pmClearly he wanted to sound smart about something. I suppose that‘s his indirect way of admitting he’s dumb.
Report Post »leftylemn
Posted on July 19, 2011 at 7:40pmLet me get this straight. Liberals are ok with hacking someones computer…But god forbid you hack a cell phone.
Report Post »Bigolfascist
Posted on July 26, 2011 at 2:47pmAh….to be more precise: “….But god forbid you hack THEIR cell phone(s).”
Report Post »bikerr
Posted on July 19, 2011 at 7:05pmWoW!
Report Post »Caniac Steve
Posted on July 19, 2011 at 7:11pmWOW is right…makes you wonder what his motives were/are in going after all of that information…well at least they caught him…
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