<story><title>Aaron Swartz, Asking For Help, 119 Days Ago</title><url>http://techcrunch.com/2013/01/14/aaron-swartz-asking-for-help-119-days-ago/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>jacquesm</author><text>(1) hindsight is 20-20&lt;p&gt;(2) the facts as we know then today were not readily apparent back then (even to those that were actively seeking those facts)&lt;p&gt;(3) Ed has a longstanding history of compassion and care&lt;p&gt;(4) mistakes were made, but there is nobody to apologise to.&lt;p&gt;Can we please stop the mobbing? Thanks.</text></item><item><author>django34211</author><text>&quot;Aaron should man up, take responsibility for his actions, and pay his own bills.&quot;&lt;p&gt;~Ed&lt;p&gt;Sounds like Ed was a bit harsh on someone who was going through allot of trouble.  The comment was excessively cruel.  Not to mention it was the top comment, which must of added large dosage of salt on an already wounded soul.&lt;p&gt;So he(Ed) rightfully deserves any criticism thrown at him.&lt;p&gt;It&apos;s such a tool bag comment, Ed should apologize.  Your defending such a vitriolic comment, sorry but you sound like scum.</text></item><item><author></author><text></text></item><item><author>woah</author><text>He certainly seemed to support the outrageous, overreaching prosecution that Aaron was facing.&lt;p&gt;&quot;Aaron should man up, take responsibility for his actions, and pay his own bills.&quot;&lt;p&gt;This sounds a lot like &quot;screw you, what you did is wrong, and you should quit whining about it.&quot;&lt;p&gt;&quot;man up&quot; clearly implies that Ed Weissman feels that going up against the massive US justice system to allow people without university affiliation or piles of cash to read publicly funded scientific research is an immature act.&lt;p&gt;As someone who has been blocked in the past from doing research because of lack of funds to pay the journals, this attitude disgusts me.&lt;p&gt;EDIT: Let me be absolutely clear that I am not implying that Ed had any blame in what happened or anything ridiculous like that. What I find objectionable in his commentary is his cavalier attitude towards the heavyhanded prosecution of those trying to make publicly funded research publicly available. This suggests a very elitist attitude towards the distribution of valuable public research.</text></item><item><author></author><text></text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>marvin</author><text>I really respect Ed Weissman&apos;s contributions and knowledge, so this is not meant as any type of personal attack. But I was thinking back when I read this comment four months ago that it seemed unusually harsh for someone who was facing 35 years in prison for something that _might_ deserve a slap on the wrist. So it&apos;s not all hindsight.&lt;p&gt;I was also surprised that it was the most-upvoted comment of the thread. And it also wasn&apos;t the only harsh comment in that thread. So if anyone deserves criticism, it&apos;s the Hacker News community for not showing a more compassionate side. I&apos;d rather say it was the responsibility of the community as a whole rather than a single person.&lt;p&gt;It makes no sense to discuss if anything would be different if the HN community had responded differently to this story, but in general, giving an unsupportive collective response to someone who is down is probably not the best idea.</text></comment>
<story><title>Aaron Swartz, Asking For Help, 119 Days Ago</title><url>http://techcrunch.com/2013/01/14/aaron-swartz-asking-for-help-119-days-ago/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>jacquesm</author><text>(1) hindsight is 20-20&lt;p&gt;(2) the facts as we know then today were not readily apparent back then (even to those that were actively seeking those facts)&lt;p&gt;(3) Ed has a longstanding history of compassion and care&lt;p&gt;(4) mistakes were made, but there is nobody to apologise to.&lt;p&gt;Can we please stop the mobbing? Thanks.</text></item><item><author>django34211</author><text>&quot;Aaron should man up, take responsibility for his actions, and pay his own bills.&quot;&lt;p&gt;~Ed&lt;p&gt;Sounds like Ed was a bit harsh on someone who was going through allot of trouble.  The comment was excessively cruel.  Not to mention it was the top comment, which must of added large dosage of salt on an already wounded soul.&lt;p&gt;So he(Ed) rightfully deserves any criticism thrown at him.&lt;p&gt;It&apos;s such a tool bag comment, Ed should apologize.  Your defending such a vitriolic comment, sorry but you sound like scum.</text></item><item><author></author><text></text></item><item><author>woah</author><text>He certainly seemed to support the outrageous, overreaching prosecution that Aaron was facing.&lt;p&gt;&quot;Aaron should man up, take responsibility for his actions, and pay his own bills.&quot;&lt;p&gt;This sounds a lot like &quot;screw you, what you did is wrong, and you should quit whining about it.&quot;&lt;p&gt;&quot;man up&quot; clearly implies that Ed Weissman feels that going up against the massive US justice system to allow people without university affiliation or piles of cash to read publicly funded scientific research is an immature act.&lt;p&gt;As someone who has been blocked in the past from doing research because of lack of funds to pay the journals, this attitude disgusts me.&lt;p&gt;EDIT: Let me be absolutely clear that I am not implying that Ed had any blame in what happened or anything ridiculous like that. What I find objectionable in his commentary is his cavalier attitude towards the heavyhanded prosecution of those trying to make publicly funded research publicly available. This suggests a very elitist attitude towards the distribution of valuable public research.</text></item><item><author></author><text></text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>JohnsonB</author><text>The feds going after a 20-something idealistic activist, who we all knew was completely harmless, and hadn&apos;t committed a &lt;i&gt;real&lt;/i&gt; crime? That can&apos;t be anything other than a severe and cruel abuse of power. I&apos;m sorry but enough information was known at the time to conclude what was going on.</text></comment>