<story><title>Aaron Swartz commits suicide</title><url>http://tech.mit.edu/V132/N61/swartz.html</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>jacquesm</author><text>Man this so sucks.&lt;p&gt;If you hit someone with enough felony counts sooner or later something can snap. This in response to those that claim the DOJ didn&apos;t have anything to do with Aaron killing himself.&lt;p&gt;For some people the mere fact of being suspected of a crime they didn&apos;t commit is enough to push them over the edge. When you&apos;re placed in a holding cell the police will remove your laces from your boots so you don&apos;t hang yourself, that&apos;s how heavy being imprisoned can weigh on some.&lt;p&gt;Aaron did something that he thought was right, that he truly believed in and that upset a large number of applecarts and that had far reaching implications, had the proverbial book thrown at him and then some. The prospect of significant amounts of jail time (35 years for downloading scientific papers, it shouldn&apos;t even &lt;i&gt;be&lt;/i&gt; a crime) and/or a felony record must have weighed very heavy on him.&lt;p&gt;For a person that is of a very stable mental make-up that would already be extreme pressure.&lt;p&gt;For someone with a mental issue it may very well be all it takes.&lt;p&gt;Aaron was inspiring to me, I think that no copyrighted piece of paper is worth a human life and that the DOJ, even if they are not directly responsible at least indirectly carry some of the responsibility here for beating down someone who was fighting for an extremely good cause in a somewhat haphazard way. The letter of the law &lt;i&gt;and&lt;/i&gt; the spirit of the law should both be taken into account.&lt;p&gt;I hope those that had a hand in Aarons&apos; continued prosecution will sleep miserably for a long time to come. Likely it won&apos;t weigh on their consciousness at all.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>konstruktor</author><text>Aaron Swartz did something he knew was morally right but very probably illegal in some way, and, him being a prodigy, I&apos;m very confident he was aware of this. It is called activism, and is a very brave and noble thing to do, something most people don&apos;t have the guts for. Governments often try to break activists who threaten their agenda (or in this case, that of a dying industry), and it seems they have succeeded with him, which I find very sad and which makes me so angry.&lt;p&gt;Maybe being indicted while free may even be a bigger psychological pressure on somebody than being in prison. When you are in prison, you can focus all your energy on your case, and the situation can only get better than your current one, not worse. You have certain legal protections, and your basic needs are taken care of.&lt;p&gt;Imagine having to work a job to earn an income (your assets probably being seized) and function in society with a constant feeling of danger looming ahead. They can fuck up your life one little piece at a time. Imagine working on your defence when the computer you are using to do so can be seized at any time (some DA having convinced a judge that you may be hacking right now). Imagine restrictions on travel that make making a living even more difficult. Imagine randomly being delivered a letter with one more bogus charge.&lt;p&gt;While being free seems to be better than in prison from an objective point of view, given the workings of the threat detection system in our mind, made for tigers in the savannah, not constant worry and fear, it may be much worse. It is well known that the functioning of our &quot;higher&quot; abilities like creativity and critical thinking are impaired under constant stress. It&apos;s easy to conceive what this means for the feeling of self worth of somebody who lives for doing cool, meaningful, big things (one of my favourite essays ever, btw):
&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.aaronsw.com/weblog/productivity&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://www.aaronsw.com/weblog/productivity&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;Also, it neatly avoids the aura of illegitimacy that imprisoning peaceful activists would have for a government.&lt;p&gt;One lesson that could be learned from this is to try and consciously provide people in his situation with an environment that feels safe. Nut just a fund for legal and living expenses and therapy to cope with the stress, but much more importantly, reliable relationships with people who are supporting, compassionate and willing to listen.</text></comment>
<story><title>Aaron Swartz commits suicide</title><url>http://tech.mit.edu/V132/N61/swartz.html</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>jacquesm</author><text>Man this so sucks.&lt;p&gt;If you hit someone with enough felony counts sooner or later something can snap. This in response to those that claim the DOJ didn&apos;t have anything to do with Aaron killing himself.&lt;p&gt;For some people the mere fact of being suspected of a crime they didn&apos;t commit is enough to push them over the edge. When you&apos;re placed in a holding cell the police will remove your laces from your boots so you don&apos;t hang yourself, that&apos;s how heavy being imprisoned can weigh on some.&lt;p&gt;Aaron did something that he thought was right, that he truly believed in and that upset a large number of applecarts and that had far reaching implications, had the proverbial book thrown at him and then some. The prospect of significant amounts of jail time (35 years for downloading scientific papers, it shouldn&apos;t even &lt;i&gt;be&lt;/i&gt; a crime) and/or a felony record must have weighed very heavy on him.&lt;p&gt;For a person that is of a very stable mental make-up that would already be extreme pressure.&lt;p&gt;For someone with a mental issue it may very well be all it takes.&lt;p&gt;Aaron was inspiring to me, I think that no copyrighted piece of paper is worth a human life and that the DOJ, even if they are not directly responsible at least indirectly carry some of the responsibility here for beating down someone who was fighting for an extremely good cause in a somewhat haphazard way. The letter of the law &lt;i&gt;and&lt;/i&gt; the spirit of the law should both be taken into account.&lt;p&gt;I hope those that had a hand in Aarons&apos; continued prosecution will sleep miserably for a long time to come. Likely it won&apos;t weigh on their consciousness at all.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>wheels</author><text>It really rubs me the wrong way when something like this happens and folks jump to conclusions as you have here. You didn&apos;t know this person. For all we know he could have not given two shits about the whole legal process and this is linked to family or relationship problems or long term general depression.</text></comment>