There is a golden thread of logic and values that connect Aaron Swartz and Anonymous, and to an extent Julian Assange and that is Internet Freedom. A day after Swartz took his life, possibly due to his looming prosecution, Anonymous, an online collective of hacktivists defaced the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) website for its alleged role in the events that led to Swartz' suicide.
Involved in a relentless battle to liberate information from privately held databases for better, free public use, Swartz was set to stand trial in April for downloading millions of pay-walled academic papers from academic database JSTOR via MIT's network and making them available free to the public. Though he pleaded not guilty, the case could have potentially invited a punishment of 35 years in prison and a fine of up to $4 million if convicted.
Hacking into a subdomain of the official MIT.edu website, Anonymous termed the prosecution of Swartz "a grotesque miscarriage of justice and a distorted and perverse shadow of the justice that Aaron died fighting for." In a postscript note, the group apologized to the MIT administrators for temporarily using their website. It further said the group does not wish to "consign blame or responsibility upon MIT for what has happened," rather it called for those responsible for the loss of an internet expert and a crusader of online social justice to acknowledge the fact that "we all have to build and safeguard a future that would make Aaron proud".
The hactivists attacked the website just hours after MIT chief Rafael Reif announced a formal investigation into the role of the institution in the events that led to the prosecution of Swartz.
Anonymous took the opportunity to call for an investigation into the death of Swartz, pressed the need for a revision of copyright policy, and once again proclaimed its stand that echoed Swartz' lifetime goal of greater internet freedom and free access to information. Anonymous listed out its goals under title ""Our wishes" such as:
- We call for this tragedy to be a basis for reform of computer crime laws, and the overzealous prosecutors who use them.
- We call for this tragedy to be a basis for reform of copyright and intellectual property law, returning it to the proper principles of common good to the many, rather than private gain to the few.
- We call for this tragedy to be a basis for greater recognition of the oppression and injustices heaped daily by certain persons and institutions of authority upon anyone who dares to stand up and be counted for their beliefs, and for greater solidarity and mutual aid in response.
- We call for this tragedy to be a basis for a renewed and unwavering commitment to a free and unfettered Internet, spared from censorship with equality of access and franchise for all.
Anonymous also posted the "open-information manifesto" written by Swartz titled "Guerrilla Open Access Manifesto." You can read the full text of the Anonymous post in the Tech Crunch story here.
