Modern inventor for the internet commits suicide

[Deleted]

Suffice it to say, you will get flak for such a dodgy thread title. ''Inventor for the internet'' is bordering on just plain misleading. Just say ''creator of the first news feed'' or something.

No sympathy from me anyway, suicide is nothing but weak and often selfish.

weak can you even imagine how much strength you need to kill yourself ? YES it is not that easy.

selfish ? Humans are selfish and absolutely nothing is wrong with that. I could understand if you had young Children but anything else ? no do as you please

This guy STOLE information. He isn't a saint, nor a martyr. He is a criminal, and he got caught, and the best thing about this story is that the tax payers don't have to pay to keep this cowardly excuse of a man locked up for the next 2 or 3 decades.

right instead you pay for a stupid war because you want to steal someones oil

oh its so easy to turn the table

[Lovecrafts]

He pretty much proved he didn't really believe in what he fought for. When the going got tough, he took the coward's way out.
He liked the attention, that's about it.

[This name sucks]

He pretty much proved he didn't really believe in what he fought for. When the going got tough, he took the coward's way out.
He liked the attention, that's about it.

He liked the attention so much he killed himself rather than go to prison for 35 years with a 1m dollar fine!

---------- Post added 2013-01-16 at 04:55 AM ----------

If you bothered to even read the op links you'd know he wasn't a fighter.

He participated in helping create a shit load of things that facilitated the modern internet's expansion.

[Deathquoi]

Applying early 20th century legal thinking to 21st century issues = win, according to the DoJ.

---------- Post added 2013-01-15 at 11:59 PM ----------

right instead you pay for a stupid war because you want to steal someones oil

oh its so easy to turn the table

Grossly inaccurate and stupidly irrelevant.

[Lovecrafts]

He liked the attention so much he killed himself rather than go to prison for 35 years with a 1m dollar fine!

---------- Post added 2013-01-16 at 04:55 AM ----------

If you bothered to even read the op links you'd know he wasn't a fighter.

He participated in helping create a shit load of things that facilitated the modern internet's expansion.

You forgot the sniveling coward part.

[Noomz]

http://www.npr.org/2013/01/13/169264...fetime-of-work

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aaron_Swartz


Yet this will not get 1/10000th the attention that steve jobs got.

Man that is harsh. He did so much good and drove technology forward, and what did he get? Fuckall, that's what.
The real inventors and the truly deserving, rarely get the recognition they deserve and too many of them are taken from us too early. That he didn't get help to prevent this suicide from happening is also a tragedy. You don't just suddenly decide to do something like that.

[mistuhbull]

right instead you pay for a stupid war because you want to steal someones oil

oh its so easy to turn the table

Ah yes, that is so entirely relevant...oh wait it's not. Especially since we'd be paying for that either way

[artemishunter1]

Yep. Both organizations that were stolen from didn't want to press charges and even appealed to the government to let the guy go but they kept pushing.

I'm 99% sure they saw this as an excellent opportunity to make an example out of someone; and they did. An example of how controlling and intrusive the government is.

The feds were a totally unrelated 3rd party that was not affected in any way whatsoever but they were the ones with the bloodlust in mind. Sickening.

It is gov't job to upheld the laws even if the victim forgives or does not want to charge or else say a rich uncle hiring assassin to kill his nephew to get the money, then forgiving the assassin will be an acceptable thing rendering laws meaningless.

[rhorle]

He liked the attention so much he killed himself rather than go to prison for 35 years with a 1m dollar fine

That was only the maximum sentence and usually isn't what is actually given. He clearly accepted such when he first did the crime, or are you saying he was ignorant of the risks?

He participated in helping create a shit load of things that facilitated the modern internet's expansion.

So that excuses any criminal activity?

[Giants41]

I'd like to point out that Steve Jobs didn't commit suicide.

Was about to say the same. Also Steve Jobs had such a HUGE presence in the media. Everyone knew who he was, my 86 year old grandmother knew him so obviously he would get a lot of attention. Like him or not Steve Jobs changed the tech industry for the better.

[artemishunter1]

Almost a few hundred years ago that same principle was applied to an entire country, the result was the USA.

well it was. But very pretend to hold moral high ground, most if not all just ignore it, never look at it after the history courses in high school. History is written by victors, it is the most common knowledge men has.

[Aeluron Lightsong]

well it was. But very pretend to hold moral high ground, most if not all just ignore it, never look at it after the history courses in high school. History is written by victors, it is the most common knowledge men has.

I think we can all be intelligent enough to know the difference between this crime and way back to create the States.

[Stir]

Is it selfish for a man who chose death over life more selfish than those who want to keep him living a terrible life? Think about it. And keep your mouth shut about it, too.

But I will say, no, I don't sympathize either. The man sought out to make the internet free and truly world wide -- by stealing. Oh yeah, great role model. If you want something, take it by any means necessary; that's basically what he displayed.

I don't know if you're a religious person, but:
David and the Temple Bread.
Jesus and the Sabbat harvest.

There's plenty of accounts in the Bible where the law is broken by role-models. And not just the Bible. Think about other things, like the super-heroes that are all the hype nowadays. Those are modern role-models, but they are all lawless vigilantes. They fight crime, but in doing so, they are criminals themselves. Yet they, even though they are fictional, are revered.

Fact is: Sometimes, you need to break the law for moral purposes. The law is NOT moral, after all. The law becomes completely IMMORAL when large corporations with lots of money get involved, by the way.

It is the coward's way to obey the law when that law is wrong and corrupt. It is cowardly and dim. This man had more courage than that.
And yes, eventually, the 'law' caught up with him. He would be sentenced to prison for a longer period of time than a serial killer, and be fined an amount larger than said serial killer. An actual villain would be handles kindly when compared to this person. And you know why? Because Aaron here hurt the RICH folk.
Unable to pay, unwilling to spend the rest of his life in prison, he chose suicide. It's not a cowardly way out, even. He prevented his sentence as a final middle-finger held up high, but in all probability, it was the sheer terror that drove him to his demise. A terror that is more powerful than the instinct for self-preservation, or indeed, commiting suicide in this scenario is probably the only way to preserve oneself. Suicide in self-defense.

As for everyone going 'Oh, but suicide is so cowardly:' Fack off. You've never been in a situation where suicide seems a valid option. You might not have lost loved ones to suicide. You're not in a position to judge.

Edit: By the way, the publishers might not have wanted to press charges... But it's not about them. Not really. If he wouldn't have been sentenced, that would have set a precedent. And OTHER publishers (you know; music and movies and such) did not want that to happen. He was an obstacle to the whole SOPA/PIPA thing as well, you see...
You might think I'm being all tinfoil hatty, but jurisprudence is a real thing, as are the invested interests.

[Ashnazg]

Based on all the hype about his achievements, I thought he actually did something groundbreaking.

Then I read the wiki article on him and I was like: "eh". Modern inventor of the internet? Really?

[Aeluron Lightsong]

Pretty much much of the law is moral excluding cetain things. Still should try and follow the law. We shouldn't trying to advocate breaking the law. Especially "DA GOVERNMENT IS DA EVULS"

[v2prwsmb45yhuq3wj23vpjk]

That was only the maximum sentence and usually isn't what is actually given. He clearly accepted such when he first did the crime, or are you saying he was ignorant of the risks?



So that excuses any criminal activity?

What he did should not have been considered criminal activity.

Is it selfish for a man who chose death over life more selfish than those who want to keep him living a terrible life? Think about it. And keep your mouth shut about it, too.

But I will say, no, I don't sympathize either. The man sought out to make the internet free and truly world wide -- by stealing. Oh yeah, great role model. If you want something, take it by any means necessary; that's basically what he displayed.

He didn't steal anything, unless you consider still having something after they 'steal' it as having been stolen from.

[Aeluron Lightsong]

What he did should not have been considered criminal activity.

Which was....?

[v2prwsmb45yhuq3wj23vpjk]

Which was....?

Attempting to distribute academic journals to people for free after downloading them from MIT's network.

[rhorle]

What he did should not have been considered criminal activity.

He broke into a secure room. Accessed a secure server. And downloaded information he didn't have the right to after uploading his own program to quickly download hundreds of thousands of documents. That is a crime just as anyone that breaks into your house is committing a crime.

He didn't steal anything, unless you consider having something that was stolen from you to still be there for you after they 'stole' it.

So if I steal your credit card information did I commit a crime? You still have your credit card and its info. But I also now have it and can give it to whoever I want.

[This name sucks]

I wish everyone would stop being fucking illiterate about the title.


Inventor for the internet is not Inventor of the internet.