

Rogue Academic Downloader Busted by MIT Webcam Stakeout, Arrest Report Says - jancona
http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2011/07/mit-webcam-swartz/

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ramidarigaz
"For its part, JSTOR says it worked with Swartz’s lawyers to get the data
back[...]"

Interesting way of putting it. I would have said "removing the data from his
possession"

~~~
bdhe
_Interesting way of putting it. I would have said "removing the data from his
possession"_

This is part of a standard narrative to treat copyright infringement as theft
analogous to theft of "tangible" traditional property. You will also notice
terms like _"documents were stolen"_ in the original indictment. Although to
be fair to JSTOR, their official statement did not use such (imho) misleading
language.

~~~
_delirium
To really increase the realism of the metaphor, in the future when such
content is stolen, they should refuse to serve it to library users. They could
explain that, regrettably, the journal issue I seek is currently missing due
to a recent theft, and assure me that they are working as fast as possible to
recover the stolen documents.

~~~
jamesbritt
My local library is like that. I've had to wait on checking out a PDF because
all available copies were taken.

Yay, future!

~~~
knieveltech
Pleas please please tell me this is a joke? Set numbers of PDF checkouts? I
don't know if I should weep or vomit.

~~~
tedunangst
Physical books impose a natural limit on the number of simultaneous checkouts.
If a book is very popular, the library will buy more copies to accommodate
demand. If a PDF is popular, the publisher expects the library to buy more
copies.

It's artificial scarcity, but this is hardly new. The number of books in a
library was never limited by the cost of paper.

~~~
antihero
Artificial scarcity is possibly one of the most perverse things to come out
capitalism.

~~~
stcredzero
The particular 1 bits he took were of unusually high quality.

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dfranke
_manhunt for a slender guy with a backpack riding a bike on MIT’s campus_

Well _that_ must've narrowed it right down.

~~~
efsavage
OMG he's still here!

~~~
stcredzero
Authorities still on the lookout for a possible accomplice, described as
"Asian, approx. 20 yrs. old, wearing a T-Shirt."

------
Mizza
>The two MIT officers and Special Agent Pickett then tried to stop Swartz, who
jumped off his bike and ran away, only to be caught and handcuffed by the
Secret Service Agent, according to the report.

RUN FASTER. I really can't stress this enough. The reason he got caught is
because he didn't run fast enough. If you're going to do stuff like this,
LEARN TO RUN FAST. Cops are fat and slow. You can usually get away from them,
especially in a place like MIT.

<http://i.imgur.com/2pMx2.jpg>

Look at that kid! That is not a fast-looking person. Run faster, guys.

~~~
cschep
Ha, I was just thinking the same thing. Also, if we're talking pure logistics,
don't jump off the BIKE either.

Perhaps we should consider the fact that the secret service was involved.. I
bet that guy is pretty fast. I don't know why I think that though, just seems
more "tough".

Another thing: Aaron is a really important person to have
writing/researching/hacking outside of prison. Surely it's a net win to just
pay a faster/sneakier kid to do this for him? Do you think he thought for one
second he might get caught?

35 YEARS IN PRISON? Avon Barksdale is only serving seven! :)

~~~
iends
You ruined The Wire for me. I just started watching season 1.

~~~
reitzensteinm
He ruined 1% of it. Keep going :)

------
makecheck
Sentencing a criminal to jail is theoretically supposed to be for the good of
society. So in a case like this, they'd better ask themselves if society would
ultimately benefit from having him behind bars.

The actual damage done here was negligible, especially considering the
questionable locking-down of the content in the first place (i.e. maybe it
should always have been free, and it was still valued at only $50,000 by the
school, not $1 million). Swartz maybe did something stupid, but his ability to
contribute to society is still far greater out of jail than in. There is also
every bit of evidence to suggest that his _intent_ is to contribute positively
to society.

In other words, if he serves more than a few months in jail for this, or is
actually asked to pay a million dollars, I will be incredibly disheartened by
the "legal" system.

~~~
blake8086
He could argue that he created $50,000 of value since now there's 2 copies.

(and maybe pay the fine with 20 copies of the database)

~~~
Iv
I smell a way to solve the debt crisis here...

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garethsprice
I feel safe knowing the Secret Service was on the case. Wouldn't want any of
that published scientific knowledge falling into the hands of the public,
after all.

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ladyphp
Totally blowing things out of proportion. 35 years? Secret Service? Just for
JSTOR data...it's unusual punishment

Everything Aaron does is out of good intentions. I know, I've worked with him
before.

His crime isn't "borrowing" the data...it's getting caught.

~~~
code_duck
His crime is also having those good intentions relate to opposing the current
political establishment.

~~~
idlewords
There's no proof whatsoever that this arrest was politically motivated.
aaronsw's furtive behavior really muddies the waters here - if my sysadmin
found a similar laptop in a server closet I would also have called the cops.

~~~
code_duck
I agree, his arrest was probably not politically motivated. However, I believe
the way the authorities proceed with prosecution and punishment will be
influenced by Aaron's other activities.

------
mikeocool
35 Years seems a little over the top.

Gilbert Bland Jr traveled to university libraries around the country for
years, stealing maps from irreplaceable antique books, by physically removing
them with a razor blade. The total value of the maps that the FBI was
eventually able to recover was over $500,000. In the end he paid $70,000 and
served 17 months in prison.

~~~
GHFigs
35 years is the maximum possible sentence according to the law assuming he
were found guilty on all counts and given the maximum sentence for each.

For comparison, Bland was facing a maximum sentence of 120 years. (Six charges
of up to twenty years each.)

<http://dukechronicle.com/node/107961>

~~~
stcredzero
Spy magazine once did an article, where the reporter documented himself
committing dozens of innocuous looking acts in public, all designed to accrue
ridiculous amounts of jail time.

------
justin_vanw
Swartz is a genius. His writings are brilliant. This is just stupidity.

JSTOR didn't get those documents through magic or witchcraft. However they
collected them, a motivated, brilliant millionaire genius might be able to
collect them as well. If they are in the public domain, then he could
distribute them for free. Or, he could run around hiding laptops at MIT, and
get arrested. I guess the latter is probably more exciting and more likely to
get you laid.

To be clear, I think it's obscene that they are prosecuting him for this, and
I think it will get thrown out in the end. Maybe he just wanted to make a
political statement to get the discussion rolling. Maybe he just doesn't give
a fuck.

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kno
"Rogue Academic Downloader..." Strong title for someone who you claim "He is
also a general friend of Wired.com" I guess you know your real friends when
you get in trouble.

~~~
eli
It seems like a pretty unbiased and accurate description to me.

------
stcredzero
Someone should make a small, remote controlled rover with an IR light and an
IR sensitive video camera, and a robotic arm. The arm is not tipped with a
manipulator, but with a Cat5 plug. This rover will be paired with a quad-
copter with enough power to deliver and retrieve the rover.

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scintill
Anyone have access to <https://floorplans.mit.edu/>, or otherwise know
anything about room 004T in building 16? I'm curious about signage or locks.

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prtk
This is the last guy I want to see behind the bars (except of course myself).

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walexander
I'm not interested in the soap opera, but I hope this serves a lesson to MIT:
Always shutdown unused switch ports, and protect them with 802.1X.

~~~
walexander
Really, downvoted for this? Seriously, I'm tired of the soap opera crap.

802.1X is infinitely more interesting.

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shareme
Something is missing..

Why was a Secret Service Agent on campus in the first place?

Something is just not adding up as FBI has jurisdiction not Secret Service..

Plus, what is the other 2% that was downloaded that was not JSTROR stuff?

Or ie ah do some journalism before writing the article?

~~~
eli
That is not unusual. The Secret Service has a very long history of
investigating computer crimes.

~~~
ajross
Indeed. They're almost solely responsible for protecting us from the hacker
scourge of role playing and card game vendors:
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Jackson_Games,_Inc._v._Un...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Jackson_Games,_Inc._v._United_States_Secret_Service)

~~~
tptacek
That, and (in the same raid) a bunch of people who had owned up and were
reconfiguring telco switches as pranks.

~~~
ajross
Not sure about the details there, and wikipedia is silent. Certainly SJG
employees were active in the phreaking community. But AFAIK none were ever
charged with anything. And I know with certainty no charges resulted from this
raid in particular.

The whole thing was a terribly botched job, the "facts" in the warrant were a
mash of giant whoppers of technobabble. It was a mess.

Did the SS have the best interests of society at heart, and might they have
reasonably been fooled into thinking something was up at SJG? Yeah, probably.
Did they _actually_ do the right thing? No way.

