Greetings,
We are here today for a number of reasons; we wouldn’t be here today however, if it weren’t for Aaron Swartz. I would now ask for a moment of silence inremembrance of Aaron.
Aaron was a hero to the open access movement, a hero who was martyred for directly acting on his own ideals. We share these ideals with Aaron, these ideals can be summed up into 3 words, FREEDOM…OF, INFORMATION! There are those who believe it is ok for some information to be free and for other information to be kept secret or held as property of a person, government, or corporate entity.
We reject those compromises to open access as did Aaron. As a result of Aaron’s work to free copious amounts of academic journals and the like from JSTOR via MIT he was charged with multiple felonies with a potential sentence of up to 35 YEARS. Aaron was offered a plea bargain that would have resulted in him being labeled a felon for life as well as essentially having to denounce his life’s work by admitting guilt to a crime that he whole-heartedly did not consider a crime.
Moreover the only true crime committed here was by the Department of Justice, Congress, MIT, JSTOR and the President of the United States for not only being passive on the issue of cyber-security law reform but also taking an active role in ensuring the destruction of so many bright minds through the torture that is prison.
Now, I ask that you let the Department of Justice know how you feel about their role in Aaron’s death?
We will not rest until these oppressive laws are amended or abolished. The CFAA and Wire Fraud Act should not be open to misinterpretation! It is these grievous misinterpretations of the law that empower the judiciary branch of the government to pursue so called “hacktivsts” with sentences that would be considered harsh for some forms of murder. If the judicial system is allowing pedophiles to walk with probation how is it even remotely possible that our nation’s brightest minds are being locked away for what may as well be the rest of their lives. Aaron is not the first to commit suicide as a result of these tactics used by prosecuting attorneys and the DOJ as a whole. It is our sincerest wish that as a result of our actions past, present, and future that Aaron will be the last to suffer this fate. The ambiguities that exist within these laws need to be removed immediately, this is done through amendments or the complete abolishment of these laws and others like them.
Anons prepping outside of the DOJ / @anon1101101 aka Binary on the Left and @SinisterAnon of #AmeriSec on the right.