OpAngel – Anon Insiders https://anoninsiders.net Anonymous Press Releases & News (from the inside) Sat, 19 Dec 2015 16:52:52 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=4.4 OpAngel Boston – Guerilla Flyer Outing in Carmen Ortiz’ Neighborhood https://anoninsiders.net/opangel-boston-1233/ https://anoninsiders.net/opangel-boston-1233/#comments Sun, 10 Mar 2013 23:11:18 +0000 http://anonrelations.net/?p=1233 Today, March 9, 2013, OPAngel Boston took direct action in Carmen Ortiz’ neighborhood. A small group of a few anons took to their street bringing just their flyers, masks and cak3. After flyering the neighborhood of Carmen Ortiz and a few neighboring streets, they were ...

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Today, March 9, 2013, OPAngel Boston took direct action in Carmen Ortiz’ neighborhood. A small group of a few anons took to their street bringing just their flyers, masks and cak3. After flyering the neighborhood of Carmen Ortiz and a few neighboring streets, they were stopped by police.

At this time we know that Carmen Ortiz was home and that our team was detained by two cruisers. At first there were initial frictions as the officers took off one girl’s mask and told another that they couldn’t film. But after that the police were reasonable and civil. A police sergeant were also present on the scene and our group was told the US Marshalls were involved. They were told they were disturbing the peace by walking down the street with their masks. After 1 1/2 hours our brothers and sisters were let go. We have been warned that any future anonymous activity, in her neighborhood, will lead to arrest.

At this time, Anonymous would like to make it clear that this was an outing only to post flyers in Carmen Ortiz’s neighborhood. Our hope was to inform her neighborhood of the ongoing issues surrounding Carmen Ortiz’s position as a Federal Attorney for the state of Massachusetts. We were there to introduce information to a general public and solicit their involvement and feedback in our quest to get Carmen Ortiz to resign.

Our message is non-violent and one of reason. The government officials trying to silence our dissent are interfering with our First Amendment right. We will not let this hinder or stop our mission of educating the general public.

Below, please find links to information about our continued action against Carmen Ortiz and the US Department of Justice. Help us continue this fight by joining us to protest outside the courthouse or calling in to Carmen’s office every other Monday. If Aaron taught us anything, it is that the internet is a force to be reckoned with. Let’s prove him right.

http://kineticblog.weebly.com/op-angel-boston.html

This paste will be updated later with video links of police action against our group today. Stay tuned…

We Are Anonymous
We Do Not Forgive
We Do Not Forget
Expect Us

Original Source

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#OpAngel Boston – Continued Action – Anonymous need your support! https://anoninsiders.net/opangel-anonymous-need-your-support-1230/ https://anoninsiders.net/opangel-anonymous-need-your-support-1230/#comments Sun, 03 Mar 2013 21:49:17 +0000 http://anonrelations.net/?p=1230 On Monday, March 4th 3pm, Anonymous and our allies will return to Boston’s Federal Courthouse to protest the treatment of Aaron’s Swartz by US Department of Justice during his prosecution and call for the resignation of Carmen Ortiz.
Our numbers are limited so we need support ...

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On Monday, March 4th 3pm, Anonymous and our allies will return to Boston’s Federal Courthouse to protest the treatment of Aaron’s Swartz by US Department of Justice during his prosecution and call for the resignation of Carmen Ortiz.

Our numbers are limited so we need support from Teh Interwebz! On March 4th at 3pm ET, please call the below numbers and demand that Carmen Ortiz resign. These are the main numbers for the Moakley Courthouse and published on Google/their website so this is 100% legal! Additional numbers will be added to this paste as needed.

617-261-2440 – Government Services Office, haven’t called during business hours, someone should pick up or they have voicemail!

617-748-9152 – Once the recording picks up, dial 0 to speak with a deputy clerk!

Request that Carmen Ortiz be fired/resign/tell them you want to stop the gross prosecutorial overreach as witness in the Aaron Swartz case. Tell them whatever, have a lulz, ask if they’re refrigerator is running, whatever, just clog the main switch as much as we can!

We Are Anonymous
We are Legion
We do not Forgive
We do not Forget
Expect Us!

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Anonymous Presents Aaron Swartz Day https://anoninsiders.net/aaronswartzday-1081/ Mon, 11 Feb 2013 15:01:43 +0000 http://anonrelations.net/?p=1081 What is #AaronSwartzDay? It is a day of remembrance, it is a day of awareness. We take this day in the name and memory of Aaron Swartz. Aaron was a brilliant young mind who co-founded RSS 1.0 at the age of 14. Aaron wasn’t satisfied ...

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What is #AaronSwartzDay? It is a day of remembrance, it is a day of awareness. We take this day in the name and memory of Aaron Swartz. Aaron was a brilliant young mind who co-founded RSS 1.0 at the age of 14. Aaron wasn’t satisfied with such an amazing accomplishment at such a young age, he realized he had a gift and wanted to share that gift with the world. Aaron went on to contribute to the creation of the CreativeCommons licensing process. He continued his career by creating Reddit.com and OpenLibrary.org

Of course Aaron is best known for his unauthorized work with JSTOR. Aaron sought to liberate millions of JSTOR documents from their vaults into the archives of the internet as a product of Open Access. Aaron was a staunch believer in Open Access (Guerrilla Open Access Manifesto, Swartz) and had faith that through Open Access the people of the world could reach an unprecedented state of being. In other words, Aaron was seeking a new age of enlightenment through Open Access. Simply put, Aaron wanted as we all do, Freedom of Information.

We choose this day to remember Aaron through social media because it represents the one-month mark since Aaron was found dead. Aaron Swartz committed suicide because of the impossible amounts of pressure put on him by a “justice” system that seeks to persecute rather than prosecute suspected criminals. Aaron was charged with a large number of felonies adding up to a potential 50-Year sentence. While he was given the chance to plea out of the case by taking 6 months in prison and pleading guilty to all of his charges, this was not an acceptable option for Aaron. Aaron, as we do, believed that his actions in regards to JSTOR were not criminal but done altruistically with the hopes of enlightening mankind as a whole. An obvious act of defiance that was meant to show that every person can play a role in making Open Access a reality.

#OPAngel became a reality shortly after Aaron was found dead, we initially existed to protect Aaron’s funeral service from a radical cult that sought to use his death as a soapbox for their hateful rhetoric. We ensured the cult’s failure in a matter of less than two days. Phase 1 of #OPAngel also consisted of online protests aimed at raising awareness to the miscarriage of justice that the DOJ perpetrated upon Aaron. Those guilty parties were identified and #OPAngel entered Phase 2.

With the advent of Phase 2 #OPAngel saw the creation of Aaron’s Law by Rep. Zoe Lofgren. #OPAngel also saw the creation of many petitions and services aimed at #CFAA reform and the administration of justice upon those responsible for Aaron’s Death, including Carmen Ortiz and Steve Heymann. Phase 2 consisted of a multitude of Online and Offline petitions which called for reform. The success of these protests spawned what is to be known as Phase 3 of #OPAngel.

Phase 3 of #OPAngel is to consist of more offline and online protests until #CFAA reform becomes a reality and those responsible for Aaron’s death are held as such. We will continue to bring awareness to these issues in any way we deem necessary. #OPLastResort has come to light with a number of high-profile hacks including those on the Fed. #OPLastResort shares many of the same core ideas as #OPAngel and in many ways #OPLastResort is a logical extension of #OPAngel. In that, we support #OPLastResort in their effort to raise awareness of Aaron, his struggles, and #CFAA reform. (See below for protest details on the 18th of February in DC and Boston)

Celebrate Aaron’s Life with us on this wonderful #AaronSwartzDay and share your stories of Aaron, share Aaron’s works, share facts about Aaron, share everything! We urge people to archive the information shared on this special day for later use. I hope we are able to use this day for #CFAA reform awareness, and show people who Aaron Swartz was and why his ideas did not die with him.

#OPAngel on Anon Relations (PR/Video Archive)

February 18th Protests to get Carmen Ortiz & Steve Heymann Fired

Guerilla Open Access Manifesto

Aaron Swartz on Wikipedia

The inspiring heroism of Aaron Swartz

Petition to Remove Steve Heymann From Office

Petition to Remove Carmen Ortiz From Office

#OPAngel in DC honoring Aaron Swartz

The Definitive Aaron Swartz Memorial Site

Memorial JSTOR Liberator Project

A source of documents for and from Aaron Swartz

Open Source #CFAA reform

Original PR source

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#OpAngel – Video : Anonymous honoring Aaron Swartz in DC https://anoninsiders.net/opangel-dc-protest-1034/ https://anoninsiders.net/opangel-dc-protest-1034/#comments Wed, 30 Jan 2013 21:37:02 +0000 http://anonrelations.net/?p=1034 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 ...

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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.

#OpAngel - Prepping for the demo

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Code of conduct for the Public Gathering in D.C. https://anoninsiders.net/conduct-929/ https://anoninsiders.net/conduct-929/#comments Mon, 21 Jan 2013 18:40:01 +0000 http://anonrelations.net/?p=929 January 25th, 2013 | 3pm EST
950 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW Washington, DC 20530-0001

Don’t dress like an Anon – This Gathering is not an Anonymous protest. It’s free for everyone to take part (which we encourage) under the name of a human being.
Wear a black ribbon – ...

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January 25th, 2013 | 3pm EST
950 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW Washington, DC 20530-0001

Aaron Swartz Anonymous Angel

Don’t dress like an Anon – This Gathering is not an Anonymous protest. It’s free for everyone to take part (which we encourage) under the name of a human being.

Wear a black ribbon – This will identify you with your fellow protesters and iconizes the protests.

Notify city officials – Depending on the city, notifications of gatherings need to be upfront.

Stay professional – This is a mature and serious protest. We need the Department of Justice to take us seriously, in order to move forwards. Don’t offend them.

Get signs – These will help you with broadcasting your message.

Keep your distance – Keeping our distance will make it harder for law enforcement to harass you, and will make it feel less threatened.

Stay in groups – A public gathering is a group activity. Leaving the group will make you vulnerable for harassment.

Record everything – These will prove your peacefull actions, when conflicts happen. There are also good footage for later on.

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#OpAngel Update https://anoninsiders.net/opangel-update-846/ https://anoninsiders.net/opangel-update-846/#comments Fri, 18 Jan 2013 02:51:28 +0000 http://anonrelations.net/?p=846 Greetings from Anonymous,
The Westboro Baptist Church announced plans to picket a memorial service taking place in New York City for Aaron Swartz. Operation Angel has moved into a new phase of our operation and we’re giving the WBC as much attention as they deserve: none. ...

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Greetings from Anonymous,

The Westboro Baptist Church announced plans to picket a memorial service taking place in New York City for Aaron Swartz. Operation Angel has moved into a new phase of our operation and we’re giving the WBC as much attention as they deserve: none. We encourage Anonymous to attend the memorial service and show their support to the growing number of people who believe in Aaron’s legacy. However, our primary responsibility is to protect that legacy by ensuring the ideas he lived for are used to put an end to the malicious prosecution of online activists. We will remain focused and not compromise this mission by surrendering our vision of justice for the opportunity to patronize a small hate group.

Please show your support for Aaron Swartz by attending a protest on the 25th of January at the following locations:

Boston, MA — The John Joseph Moakley Courthouse, Address: 1 Courthouse Way, Boston, MA. Time: 3pm EST.

Washington D.C. — Address: 600 Pennsylvania Ave. Time: 3pm EST

Other Updates:

Due to the verified existence of law enforcement surveillance, the hacktivist team that had previously dedicated themselves to digital protests against the Department of Justice on behalf of Aaron Swartz will not complete their demonstration. The names of the hactivist group and law enforcement agency are not being released. There are many others who have already used the internet to show support by compromising MIT’s networks and releasing documents from JSTOR’s servers, the very crime Aaron was accused of. Independent actions such as these are likely to continue and we commend the bravery of the groups involved.

That is all.

Contact: OpAngel@hushmail.com
Press Inquires: OpAngelPress@hushmail.com
1/13/13 Release: http://pastebin.com/PKm921c9
1/16/13 Release: http://pastebin.com/PKm921c9

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#OpAngel 2 – The Computer Fraud and Abuse Act reform begins now! https://anoninsiders.net/opangel-2-797/ https://anoninsiders.net/opangel-2-797/#comments Thu, 17 Jan 2013 14:00:45 +0000 https://anonrelations.net/?p=797 Operation Angel, began by Anonymous in response to the death of Aaron Swartz, successfully accomplished phase one of it’s mission by preventing Westboro Baptist Church members from picketing Swartz’s funeral. Anonymous is now preparing for a longer and more extensive battle within the U.S. legal ...

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Operation Angel, began by Anonymous in response to the death of Aaron Swartz, successfully accomplished phase one of it’s mission by preventing Westboro Baptist Church members from picketing Swartz’s funeral. Anonymous is now preparing for a longer and more extensive battle within the U.S. legal system.

Aaron Swartz was essential to the progression of the Internet. He was renowned for his role in the development of RSS, Open Library and the creation of Reddit. Instead of capitalizing on his talents solely for personal gain, Aaron chose to dedicate his life to the defense of internet freedom and the preservation of civil liberties. At a time when America’s educational system is ranked 17th in the world, he believed that knowledge should be made freely available to all who seek it. Before taking his own life, Aaron was facing up to 35 years in prison for acting on this belief.

The charges against Swartz are only one example of malicious prosecution by U.S. Attorney’s in a history of unequaled viciousness against those accused of cyber crimes. It is clear that the punishment Swartz faced was not proportional to the crimes of which he was accused. We cannot pretend that our system is just when perpetrators of violence are dealt lighter sentences than those whose alleged crimes are essentially victimless. It is our conclusion that dubious laws such as the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act serve only to provide prosecutors with the means to selectively target and unfairly punish online activists. Anonymous intends to continue Operation Angel with the goal of reforming these laws.

There are several actions planned to raise awareness of this issue and they are listed below:

1) Within the next week we will publicly endorse specific changes to the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act. While the introduction of Congresswoman Zoe Lofgren’s “Aaron’s Law” is a step in the right direction, it may not go far enough.

2) Several online demonstrations will take place throughout the week leading up to the live protests. Multiple Anonymous groups have promised to down or deface officials website belonging to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the Department of Justice, specifically the official websites of prosecutors in Aaron Swartz case.

3) On January 25th the voice of our grievances will transcend the world wide web and be present in the streets of D.C. and Boston. Anonymous protests will take place in D.C. at 600 Pennsylvania Ave (and Constitution Ave.) at 3pm EST. A simultaneous protest will take place at the John Joseph Moakley Courthouse in Boston located at 1 Courthouse Way. Congresswoman Lofgren is encouraged to attend the D.C. demonstration and we will provide her a platform to discuss Aaron’s Law.

Stay tuned to #OpAngel and @YourAnonNews for updates.

DC Protest Poster
Boston Protest Details
Phase Two Video

Contact:
OpAngel@hushmail.com

Press Inquires:
OpAngelPress@hushmail.com

Original PR source

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Washington D.C. Demonstration in Honor of Aaron Swartz https://anoninsiders.net/aaronprotest-737/ https://anoninsiders.net/aaronprotest-737/#comments Tue, 15 Jan 2013 17:04:55 +0000 http://anonrelations.net/?p=737 Aaron Swartz was an American computer programmer, writer, archivist, political organizer, and Internet activist. A true hero to many and an inspiration to all, his life was cut short but his actions and voice will always be in our hearts. They say when someone dies; ...

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Washington D.C. Demonstration in Honor of Aaron Swartz

Aaron Swartz was an American computer programmer, writer, archivist, political organizer, and Internet activist. A true hero to many and an inspiration to all, his life was cut short but his actions and voice will always be in our hearts. They say when someone dies; and angel gets its wings. The only thing wrong with this picture is that a true angel has perished but his work and motivation still lives within us and will never burn out.

Today, 1/15/2013, is Aaron Swartz funeral. Many tears will be shed but the wonderful memories will be playing in everyone’s mind. His compassion and will power for a better tomorrow is the direction we all need to follow and walk.

As his body is laid to rest, his image will be burned in our minds with a fire flaming out of control for justice and an apology from the Department of Justice. Days after his death, the DOJ finally dropped Aarons’ charges, something that should’ve been done when no true crime was committed and only free public documents we downloaded.

As the hive prepares to take action in Honor of Aaron Swartz we are also setting up a peaceful protest against the DOJ as well in honor of the fallen hero, Aaron Swartz. We ask all anons, non-anons, activist, friends and family to come to the streets in a professional manner and voice our opinions and concerns to the DOJ. More heroes and dedicated individuals will be gone if nothing is done.

We must stand up and speak our minds. Stop the injustice and corrupted lies.

Just us, in a moment of solidarity in a peaceful protest for our brother, Aaron Swartz.

Important Update : Protest address is 950 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW Washington, DC 20530-0001.

Join us : irc.anonset.com #OpAngel

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#OpAngel : Anonymous to Target DOJ After Aaron Swartz Death and Protect https://anoninsiders.net/aaron-swartz-opangel-662/ https://anoninsiders.net/aaron-swartz-opangel-662/#comments Mon, 14 Jan 2013 14:25:00 +0000 https://anonrelations.net/?p=662 Twenty-four hours after the death of Aaron Swartz was announced to the world, a heartless cult announced their intention to picket his funeral. In response, Anonymous has launched Operation Angel.
Before discussing the operation, there is something that needs to be said to Aaron’s family and ...

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Twenty-four hours after the death of Aaron Swartz was announced to the world, a heartless cult announced their intention to picket his funeral. In response, Anonymous has launched Operation Angel.

Before discussing the operation, there is something that needs to be said to Aaron’s family and his friends: We’re sorry. It is likely that our continuous condemnation and attacks against this cult is the very reason Aaron is being targeted by them. We would do anything to stop them from attending Aaron’s services. Aaron deserves peace and we will not allow this cult to overpower what should be the media’s focus, the monsters at D O J who ruthlessly targeted your son.

We encourage organizations who would like to form protective human shields near Aaron’s funeral to listen closely for any announcement by the family on this action and respect their wishes.

Operation Angel has a number of goals. First, we mean to facilitate the flow of information regarding the cult’s movements. We are encouraging the public and any members of Highland Park law enforcement with intel on the cults to e-mail that information to OpAngel@hushmail.com. You can use an anonymous e-mail address. You will not receive a response. You will not be exposed.

The second phase of this operation will begin after Aaron is laid to rest. Partnering with other organizations, Anonymous intends to pursue reform within the DOJ and other government agencies to prevent the kind of unnecessary harassment that Aaron Swartz was victim to. Some of the brightest men and women in the fields of information technology and security are being targeted by agencies that lack a basic understanding of the so-called crimes they are accusing people of. We will do this for Aaron Swartz and everyone like him.

More information will be made available to the public shortly. Follow hashtag #OpAngel on Twitter.

For more information contact: OpAngelPress@hushmail.com

Original PR sourceOriginal PR video

Join #OpAngel :

irc.anonops.com #OpAngel
Webchat: http://bit.ly/Xybg4j

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In Memoriam, Aaron Swartz, November 8, 1986 – January 11, 2013, Requiescat in pace https://anoninsiders.net/in-memoriam-aaron-swartz-659/ https://anoninsiders.net/in-memoriam-aaron-swartz-659/#comments Mon, 14 Jan 2013 13:33:09 +0000 https://anonrelations.net/?p=659 A brief message from Anonymous.
Whether or not the government contributed to his suicide, the government’s prosecution of Swartz was a grotesque miscarriage of justice, a distorted and perverse shadow of the justice that Aaron died fighting for — freeing the publicly-funded scientific literature from a ...

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A brief message from Anonymous.

Whether or not the government contributed to his suicide, the government’s prosecution of Swartz was a grotesque miscarriage of justice, a distorted and perverse shadow of the justice that Aaron died fighting for — freeing the publicly-funded scientific literature from a publishing system that makes it inaccessible to most of those who paid for it — enabling the collective betterment of the world through the facilitation of sharing — an ideal that we should all support.

Moreover, the situation Aaron found himself in highlights the injustice of U.S. computer crime laws, particularly their punishment regimes, and the highly-questionable justice of pre-trial bargaining. Aaron’s act was undoubtedly political activism; it had tragic consequences.

Our wishes

We call for this tragedy to be a basis for reform of computer crime laws, and the overzealous prosecutors who use them.
We call for this tragedy to be a basis for reform of copyright and intellectual property law, returning it to the proper principles of common good to the many, rather than private gain to the few.
We call for this tragedy to be a basis for greater recognition of the oppression and injustices heaped daily by certain persons and institutions of authority upon anyone who dares to stand up and be counted for their beliefs, and for greater solidarity and mutual aid in response.
We call for this tragedy to be a basis for a renewed and unwavering commitment to a free and unfettered internet, spared from censorship with equality of access and franchise for all.
For in the end, we will not be judged according to what we give, but according to what we keep to ourselves.

Aaron, we will sorely miss your friendship, and your help in building a better world. May you read in peace.

—-

Who was Aaron Swartz? A hero in the SOPA/PIPA campaign, Reddit co-founder, RSS, Demand Progress, Avaaz, etc…:

Aaron Swartz’s funeral is on Tuesday.

Remove United States District Attorney Carmen Ortiz from office for overreach in the case of #Aaron Swartz.

—-

Guerilla Open Access Manifesto

Information is power. But like all power, there are those who want to keep it for themselves. The world’s entire scientific and cultural heritage, published over centuries in books and journals, is increasingly being digitized and locked up by a handful of private corporations. Want to read the papers featuring the most famous results of the sciences? You’ll need to send enormous amounts to publishers like Reed Elsevier.

There are those struggling to change this. The Open Access Movement has fought valiantly to ensure that scientists do not sign their copyrights away but instead ensure their work is published on the Internet, under terms that allow anyone to access it. But even under the best scenarios, their work will only apply to things published in the future. Everything up until now will have been lost.

That is too high a price to pay. Forcing academics to pay money to read the work of their colleagues? Scanning entire libraries but only allowing the folks at Google to read them? Providing scientific articles to those at elite universities in the First World, but not to children in the Global South? It’s outrageous and unacceptable.

“I agree,” many say, “but what can we do? The companies hold the copyrights, they make enormous amounts of money by charging for access, and it’s perfectly legal — there’s nothing we can do to stop them.” But there is something we can, something that’s already being done: we can fight back.

Those with access to these resources — students, librarians, scientists — you have been given a privilege. You get to feed at this banquet of knowledge while the rest of the world is locked out. But you need not — indeed, morally, you cannot — keep this privilege for yourselves. You have a duty to share it with the world. And you have: trading passwords with colleagues, filling download requests for friends.

Meanwhile, those who have been locked out are not standing idly by. You have been sneaking through holes and climbing over fences, liberating the information locked up by the publishers and sharing them with your friends.

But all of this action goes on in the dark, hidden underground. It’s called stealing or piracy, as if sharing a wealth of knowledge were the moral equivalent of plundering a ship and murdering its crew. But sharing isn’t immoral — it’s a moral imperative. Only those blinded by greed would refuse to let a friend make a copy.

Large corporations, of course, are blinded by greed. The laws under which they operate require it — their shareholders would revolt at anything less. And the politicians they have bought off back them, passing laws giving them the exclusive power to decide who can make copies.

There is no justice in following unjust laws. It’s time to come into the light and, in the grand tradition of civil disobedience, declare our opposition to this private theft of public culture.

We need to take information, wherever it is stored, make our copies and share them with the world. We need to take stuff that’s out of copyright and add it to the archive. We need to buy secret databases and put them on the Web. We need to download scientific journals and upload them to file sharing networks. We need to fight for Guerilla Open Access.

With enough of us, around the world, we’ll not just send a strong message opposing the privatization of knowledge — we’ll make it a thing of the past. Will you join us?

Aaron Swartz

July 2008, Eremo, Italy

—–

You were the best of us; may you yet bring out the best in us.

-Anonymous, Jan 13, 2013.

—-

(Postscript: We tender apologies to the administrators at MIT for this temporary use of their websites. We understand that it is a time of soul-searching for all those within this great institution as much — perhaps for some involved even more so — than it is for the greater internet community. We do not consign blame or responsibility upon MIT for what has happened, but call for all those feel heavy-hearted in their proximity to this awful loss to acknowledge instead the responsibility they have — that we all have — to build and safeguard a future that would make Aaron proud, and honour the ideals and dedication that burnt so brightly within him by embodying them in thought and word and action. Original frontpage)

The post In Memoriam, Aaron Swartz, November 8, 1986 – January 11, 2013, Requiescat in pace appeared first on Anon Insiders.

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