The U.S. Secret Police has released the first 100 pages of the file on Aaron Swartz, the notable activist who committed suicide recently. The pages released so far divulge how the Secret Service had been on the case against Swartz since the very start.
The whole case against Swartz had been constructed for his bulk-downloading of MIT’s academic documents. MIT and JSTOR had launched the case against the notable activist and the prosecutors were somehow keen on punishing Swartz for what he did.
The role of MIT and JSTOR has also been very regrettable since both invited the Secret Service to be a part of the case early on. This move was essentially meant to victimize Swartz and make an example out of him by leveling federal changes against him.
The file released by Secret Service now shows that they were interested in knowing about Swartz’s activism notions, especially about a ‘Guerilla Open Access Manifesto.’ The manifesto was considered a human rights issue by Swartz and many of his friends and was simply a declaration of certain rights that every must have in the cyber space. However, the Secret Service considered it more of a political statement, thus overreacting and becoming a part of the witch-hunt against Swartz.
This file, as has all the earlier evidence shown, continues to prove that the federal prosecutors, MIT, JSTOR and the authorities at large abused their power to the point of severely punishing an individual for a mistake that was very pardonable. However, sadly, no inquiries have been initiated against the prosecutors who pushed Swartz to suicide or against the university that maintain a so-called high altar among the U.S. universities but continues to believe in obsolete and inhumane principles.
Courtesy: Wired
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