Episode: 1165
Title: HPR1165: TGTM Newscast for 1/17/2013
Source: https://hub.hackerpublicradio.org/ccdn.php?filename=/eps/hpr1165/hpr1165.mp3
Transcribed: 2025-10-17 20:52:47

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You're listening to TGTM News, number 87, record for Thursday, January 17, 2013.
You're listening to the Tech Only Hacker Public Radio Edition to get the full podcast
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Hello and good day again, this is Pokey, and now for the Tech News Roundup.
From torrentfreak.com by Ernesto, dated January 11, 2013.
Verizon's six strikes anti-piracy measures unveiled.
During the coming weeks, the controversial six strikes anti-piracy system will kick off in the US.
While none of the participating ISPs have officially announced how they will handle repeating infringers,
torrentfreak has obtained a copy of Verizon's full policy.
Among other things, offenders will have to watch a video about the consequences of online piracy
before their speeds are reduced to 256 kilobits per second.
Also worth mentioning is that the copyright alert system will also apply to business customers.
In 2011, the MPAA and the RIAA teamed up with five major internet providers in the United States
to launch the Center for Copyright Information, CCI.
The parties agreed to implement a system through which subscribers are warned that their copyright infringements
have been monitored by rights holders.
After several warnings, ISPs may then take a variety of repressive measures against alleged infringers.
After more than a year of delays, the plan will officially roll out in the first weeks of this year.
One of the ISPs taking part is Verizon.
Previously, the ISP made some remarks about the various punishments it would hand out to subscribers,
but in common with other participating providers, the company is not yet announced full details.
Today, we can do this for them.
Torrentfreak has obtained a complete overview of how Verizon's alert scheme will work,
and details of the mitigation measures they intend to put into place.
The document is stored on Verizon's web server, but due to its placement, it is currently unfindable using Google.
When the IP address of a Verizon customer is caught sharing copyrighted works on BitTorrent,
the responsible account holder will first get two notification alerts,
these inform the customer about the alleged copyright infringements,
and also explain how file sharing software can be removed from their computer.
Alert one and two, quote,
are delivered by email and automatic voicemail to the telephone number we have on file for you.
Notify you that one or more copyright owners have reported that they believe your account
has been involved in possible copyright infringement activity.
Provide a link to information on how to check to see if file sharing software is operating on your computer
and how to remove it, and tell you where to find information on obtaining content legally.
If more infringements are found after the first two alerts,
then the account holder is moved onto the acknowledgement phase where pop-ups appear on screen.
Customers will have to acknowledge that they receive to the new alert
and will be instructed to watch a video about the consequences of online piracy.
Alert three and four, quote,
redirect your browser to a special web page where you can review and acknowledge receiving the alerts.
Provide a short video about copyright law and the consequences of copyright infringement.
Require you to click on an acknowledgement button before you will be able to freely browse the internet.
Clicking the acknowledgement button does not require that you admit that you or anyone else
actually engaged in any infringing activity,
only that you have received the alert, and quote,
if the infringements continue after the fourth alert,
the subscriber will move on to the mitigation phase.
Here, the customer can either ask for a review by the American Overtration Association
or undergo a temporary speed reduction to 256K.
Alert five and six, quote,
redirect your browser to a special web page where you will be given several options.
You can agree to an immediate temporary two or three day
reduction in the speed of your internet access service to 256K,
a little faster than typical dial-up speed,
agree to the same temporary two or three day speed reduction,
but delay it for a period of 14 days,
or ask for a review of the validity of your alerts by the American Overtration Association, end, quote.
If more infringements are found after the sixth alert,
quote, nothing end, quote, will happen.
The user will receive no more alerts and can continue using his or her internet connection at full speed.
However, and this is not mentioned by Verizon,
the MPAA and RIDAA may obtain the IP addresses of such repeat infringers
in order to take legal action against them.
While the ISPs will not voluntarily share the name and address linked to the IP address,
they can obtain a subpoena to demand this information from the provider.
The potential for copyright holders to use the alert system as solid evidence gathering
for lawsuits remains one of the most problematic aspects of the six strikes scheme.
Finally, Torrent Freak also confirmed that the alerts outlined above
will also apply to business customers.
This means that coffee shops and other businesses will have to be very careful
over who they allow on their company networks.
It could mean the end of free Wi-Fi in many places.
Aside from Verizon, we previously received some details on the measures AT&T
and Time Warner Cable will take.
Leaked AT&T documents showed that they will block users access
to some of the most frequently visited websites on the internet
until they complete a copyright course.
Time Warner Cable will temporarily interrupt people's ability to browse the internet.
It is expected that the two remaining providers,
Cable Vision and Comcast, will take similar measures.
None of the ISPs will permanently disconnect repeat infringers as part of the plan.
From TorrentFreak.com by EnigMax, dated January 9, 2013, RapidShare,
Traffic and Piracy dipped after new business model kicked in.
Under continued pressure to take additional anti-piracy measures,
File Hosting Site RapidShare introduced a new business strategy last year.
The model restricted the ability of all users to engage in third-party public distribution,
the most popular way of sharing copyrighted material.
As a result, the company experienced a significant drop in traffic
and, according to a spokesman, a significant drop in copyright infringement, too.
As one of the planet's largest file-hosters,
RapidShare is continually under the watchful eye of the world's entertainment companies.
After years of lower-level complaints, during 2010, there was a significant development.
In a response to a request from the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative,
the RIAA submitted their list of foreign, quote, notorious markets, end quote.
And among the usual Torrent site suspects were surprise entrance RapidShare.
In the year that followed, RapidShare worked hard to combat the allegation that they were some kind of rogue site.
The company selected a twin approach to change the negative perception of the company
and show that the file-hoster really cares about copyright protection.
The strategy paid off.
Quote, the fact that we were not included in the 2011 list
is a result of these educational efforts, end quote.
RapidShare attorney Daniel Raimier told Torrent Freak,
but RapidShare weren't finished.
Last year, in the wake of the mega-upload raids,
the company reduced the speeds available to users for their free service
after admitting that lots of pirates had jumped on board since the mega shutdown.
Then, in April 2012, RapidShare published a pretty tough and controversial anti-piracy manifesto
for fellow file-hosting sites to follow.
But still, the industry response to RapidShare's overtures was an underwhelming, quote,
must do better.
End quote.
Quote,
RapidShare allows unlimited distribution of copyrighted files
among millions of anonymous strangers
without taking adequate steps to prevent this illegal activity.
End quote, an RIAA spokesman declared.
But by November 2012, even that complaint had been addressed.
In a surprise announcement, RapidShare declared that it would place strict limits
on the amount of outbound public traffic its users can generate.
Free users were limited to just one gigabyte per day,
while paid users had a cap of 30 gigabytes during the same period.
Stopping the unlimited distribution of files amongst, quote,
anonymous strangers, end quote, overnight.
Now, just a few weeks on from the big decision,
we thought it might be interesting to take a look at any effects it may have had.
Embedded in the original Torrent Freak article,
are Alexa Stats for RapidShare.
Note the large increase in traffic corresponding with the influx of users following the shutdown
of mega-upload in January 2012.
Note the steady decrease in traffic as bandwidth throttling measures of RapidShare took their toll.
Then notice what happened at the end of November
as RapidShare eliminated large-scale third-party sharing.
Torrent Freak asked RapidShare how the company feels about its latest business decision,
the results, and how these affected its long-term strategy.
Quote, it is in the nature of things that a traffic limit leads to a reduction of traffic.
We can also confirm a reduction of copyright infringements
since we launched the new business model, end quote, the company told us.
Quote, therefore, the development is indeed very beneficial for RapidShare
and is proof that we have chosen the right approach.
For 2013, we'll further concentrate on product innovations
and are looking forward to announcing RapidDrive for Mac OSX soon,
which will make our cloud storage service even more attractive.
And quote, presumably another huge plus is that due to RapidShare's efforts,
it is unlikely that the company will find itself on a future USTR list
or share the kind of fate that ended mega-upload.
It could even conceivably become the target of gentle praise from the likes of the RIAA,
who have rarely had a good word for the site.
The flip side in the short term is that RapidShare could lose a bit more traffic,
and least until it manages to balance the loss of traditional file-sharing traffic
with its new image as an anti-piracy-motivated drop-box-style cloud-hosting business.
In the meantime, the RIAA and friends have a new anti-piracy boo-he-man.
That site is called RapidGator, and in stark contrast to the new RapidShare model,
its slogan is, quote, share files with your friends, no limits, easy as ever.
End quote.
Please see the original Torrent Freaked article to see a graph representing
the enormous jump in traffic that RapidGator has had over the past 12 months.
From TechDirt.com, by Tim Cushing, dated January 11, 2013.
IBM Researcher feeds Watson Supercomputer, the Urban Dictionary, very quickly regrets it.
As a parent, some of your proudest moments occur when your children begin to talk.
After several months of year shredding cries and indistinguishable babble,
they finally begin to communicate in a language you can understand.
First word is an indescribable joy, whether it's Mama, Dada, or Roku.
The future now seems to be an amazing place where you and your child will strive towards excellence together,
culminating in a comfortable retirement in which you live off their immense earnings as a person of brilliance.
Shortly thereafter, you begin to rue the day they ever learned the now cursed language of their ancestors.
It starts with the incessant barrage of questions and a meandering quest for knowledge,
followed by the barrage of questions, mainly why, that greet every suggestion, criticism, or direct order.
Shortly thereafter, it's followed by questions directed at your parenting skills, cultural tastes,
archaic slang use, rhetorical devices, and sense of direction.
At the point where you're wishing their language development had followed the Charlie Grondin's learning curve,
you're now asked to make a surprise appearance at the school administrator's office
to explain a sudden outburst of particularly inventive cursing from your former pride and joy.
So it is also with artificial life.
Watson, IBM's Jeopardy contestant supercomputer, showed the world that with the right programming,
any puny human could be bested in a mildly snooty game show that handed out answers and asked for questions.
However, the quest for true artificial intelligence is still ongoing.
So in the interest of science, the whole of human knowledge, internet addition,
was dropped into Watson's brain, and then the problems began.
Quote, two years ago, Brown attempted to teach Watson the Urban Dictionary.
The popular website contains definitions for terms ranging from internet abbreviations like
OMG, short for, oh my god, two slang such as hot mess.
But Watson couldn't distinguish between polite language and profanity, which the Urban Dictionary
is full of. Watson picked up some bad habits from reading Wikipedia as well.
In tests, it even used the word bullshit in an answer to a researcher's query.
End quote.
Well, it appears that every teacher's distrust of the internet in general is well earned.
It's nothing but quasi-faxed, dressed up in four letter words,
like a world book in cyclopedia annotated by four chans slash B board.
Tim Cushing states that he's not going to link to the slash B board as he won't have your
misclicks weighing on his soul.
Still, it's disheartening to know that the use of the word bullshit,
even correctly, is not considered a sign of intelligence, artificial, or otherwise.
Sure, the word itself may be inappropriate, but under certain circumstances,
it is by far the most appropriate answer.
Fortunately for Watson's team, they had the option to remove all of this useful knowledge
before it offended other researchers who weren't as used to being coldly called on their bullshit.
Quote.
Ultimately, Brown's 35-person team developed a filter to keep Watson from swearing
and scraped the Urban Dictionary from its memory.
But the trial proves just how thorny it will be to get artificial intelligence to communicate
naturally.
It also shows that artificial intelligence has one huge advantage over regular intelligence.
The ability to permanently forget.
Wheel-oally humans are stuck with a brain that constantly reminds us,
especially if we spend too much time at places like the aforementioned slash B board,
that what is seen cannot be unseen.
Watson, having been de-swerified and brainwashed, is now headed to a better place.
Quote.
Brown is now training Watson as a diagnostic tool for hospitals.
End quote.
There it will be able to use its acquired knowledge to battle health issues like cancer,
AIDS, diabetes, and disassociative Facebook identity disorder.
From torrentfreak.com by Ernesto, dated January 10, 2013.
First Pirate Bay server on permanent display in computer museum.
The Pirate Bay is one of the best known file-sharing brands, and in less than a decade,
the site has well earned its place in computer history.
The computer museum, in Lincolnping, has a section dedicated to 50 years of file-sharing,
and one of the top pieces is one of the first servers used by the Pirate Bay.
According to the museum, the Pirate Bay has become a contemporary historical phenomenon,
and the server signifies a, quote, revolution that began in a dark gray metal box under a bed.
End quote. Founded in 2003, the Pirate Bay turns a decade old September this year.
Since its humble beginnings, the notorious site has come a long way.
Today, the Pirate Bay is spreading a world of information to millions of people every day,
through a complex network of cloud-based servers hosted across the world.
However, in the first two years, the hardware setup was rather primitive.
The site first came online in Mexico, where Gottfried Svartholm hosted the site on a server owned
by the company he was working for at the time. After a few months, the site relocated to Sweden,
where more servers were added to keep up with the increase in traffic.
One of these first servers has now been made available to the computer museum in Lincolnping,
where it's now on permanent display. The first server in question is part of the, quote,
50 years of file sharing, end quote, section, and according to the museum, it represents the cultural
revolution that was started by the BitTorrent site. The Torrent Free Cardical has a photograph
here of the particular server on display at the museum. The server is displayed in its original
computer case, but the museum replaced one of the sides with a see-through panel so visitors can
take a look at the inside. On the panel, the museum writes the following, quote, stock home,
in the year of 2004, in the home of Gottfried Svartholm Ward, at his parents' place,
this ordinary computer is running day and night. With a special software and a standard broadband
connection, this machine was the beginning for one of the most loved, hated, and debated phenomena
in modern time. The file sharing site, the pirate bay. In less than 10 years, the pirate bay has
become a contemporary historical phenomenon due to its distinguished position in the file
sharing debate. The discussions that have sprung from this simple computer server concerns
serious subjects as freedom of speech, global democracy, and of course the sole existence of copyright.
Support groups and political parties have gathered around the now well-known banner of the
pirate bay. Together they stand in the center of a cultural revolution, a revolution that began
in a dark grey metal box under a bed. A pirate bay insider informed Torrent Freak that the
contents of the computer casing question were initially hosted in the blue box pictured here.
Pictured here is a link to a photograph of the blue box mentioned. In the same photo are also
the three other servers that were operational at the time, a laptop, tower case, and the red server
box. So, in just a few years, the hardware moved from an old blue box to a prominent place at
the computer museum. Computer museum curator Thomas Clifford told Torrent Freak that they managed
to get their hands on the server via a person close to the old pirate bay team. Quote,
we immediately wanted to integrate it into our exhibition. Since it's one of the few physical
artifacts that can properly represent file sharing, and since our exhibition mainly focuses on Swedish
computer history, it would be strange and remiss not to talk about TPP as a rather prominent
invention, regardless of what one might feel about file sharing. Clifford says,
According to the curator, the pirate bay's impact on digital history should not be underestimated.
Quote, first off, it's been a good way for people all over the world to take part of a lot
of cultural expressions. I'm not talking about the wrong or right of it here, but simply stating
that it has had a culturally enabling effect. Furthermore, I believe TPP has put pressure on
the industry to come up with legal alternatives, such as the also Swedish Spotify for music,
and Vodler for film. I believe the legal alternatives are the future, since I think that instant
access to material is more important to most people than not having to pay for it. Then,
here's also the fact that TPP has enabled small scale creators to be seen or heard without having
a huge production company or label lurking in the shadows. This, to me personally, as a layman
musician, is one of the greatest strengths of mass file sharing. The downside, of course,
is that it can be rather hard to make a living off of your creations if everyone shares it for free
and, quote, Clifford says, this is not the first time one of pirate bay's servers has become
hosted by a museum. Nearly four years ago, Sweden's National Museum of Science and Technology
bought one of the server racks that were rated by the police in 2006. Over the years,
the pirate bay has become less resource intensive. The site is no longer serving
got torrent files and does not run a track or either, greatly reducing hardware and bandwidth
requirements. Earlier this year, they moved most of their service to the cloud, where they currently
run on 17 virtual machines. The latest move greatly reduced pirate bay's power consumption,
but it's also less nostalgic as none of these cloud servers could ever go on display.
The latest move greatly reduced pirate bay's power consumption, but it's also less nostalgic as
none of these cloud servers could ever go on display. From TechDirt.com by Timothy Geigner,
dated January 11, 2013. The flip side. Embracing closed gardens like the Apple App Store
shows just how unfree you want to be. Just the other day, I told you the story of some
immature and racist apps in Google's Play Store. In that post, I discussed how the kind of free
speech that offends is truly a barometer of exactly how free we want speech to be. It's one
thing to embrace free speech that suits us, but it is every bit our duty to protect speech that
does not suit us as well, because it is the ideal of free speech that we are protecting,
not the speech with which we disagree. The only other option, of course, is to become a society
less permissible of speech. True that society may yield a lower amount of speech the majority
finds offensive, but what else gets caught in the drain trap that shouldn't have? We remind
one another all the time that private companies like Google aren't under obligation to the
first amendment and free speech, but we still have that ideal that permeates our society,
and so some of us choose to embrace the more open and permissible environments because we believe
more information, data, and culture is always better, and we'll deal with the annoyances that come
along with it. Others choose to embrace the Apple App Store, which gives you a wonderful idea of
exactly what happens when speech and culture become more constricted. Take one recent example.
Apple's rejection of a gaming app based on the war in Syria created to help educate others
about exactly what is occurring there. The game was rejected based on Apple's not allowing apps
that, quote, solely target a specific race, culture, a real government, or corporation,
or any other real entity. This decision is a shame, really, as it makes it hard to talk about the
real world, end quote, said designer Thomas Rawlings. Quote, we had hoped that Apple would be more
nuanced in how they applied this rule, but we got a bit worried when it had been in submission
for around two weeks without a decision. We then figured that because of the controversy of using
the gaming medium to cover an ongoing war meant passing the game had become an issue for them,
end quote. Rawlings insists that there is nothing actually offensive in the game,
and notes that the response from those that got their hands on it has been generally positive.
From what I can tell, the game is essentially a quick scenario decision-making game told from
the Syrian Rebels point of view. It incorporates real world news items and events and allows the
player to decide how to handle them. There's no derogatory name calling, no over-the-top violence,
but because they mentioned a real government, it's out. And that's exactly the problem with a
less permissible garden like Apple's App Store. Sure, in Google's Garden, or the wider open
internet for that matter, you will occasionally have to ignore a few weeds, but you get the full
spectrum of flowers to enjoy. Apple's Garden may have less weeds, but they have less flowers,
and the choice over which flowers you see isn't up to you. That's not the system I want to embrace.
A quick note before we start, this segment was recorded a couple of days ago when my emotions
were running incredibly high. In retrospect, I did consider censoring aspects of it. However,
I thought that it would make a better record of the reactions that some people can have
when reading over this massive material that is emerging about the situation. So please,
bear with the emotionalism of the moment. I felt it was better to leave it in than to self-sensor
in this case. And now a TGTM in-depth look. This is Deep Geek. It kills me emotionally
to have to report to you dear listeners of the suicide of Alan Schwartz driven to suicide
by our own federal government's abuse of their power. I've said it before in this newscast,
and I'll say it again. The United States of America is run by a fascist dictatorship.
Fascism is a technical name for a government that is owned and operated by a handful of corporations.
And when we engage in the military industrial complex system,
we became a fascist country. And when China decided that they had 40 strategic companies that
they were going to favor, which meant that they were going to take money from and do what they
said, China became a fascist country too. And the only reason we invaded World War II Germany,
the only reason we re-fort fascism in Europe was because America doesn't like competition.
That's face-to-facts. You might think I'm heavy-handed, but I said before I'll say it again.
My father fought the Germans in World War II because he fought fascists and I'm fighting them today
and now. Call it a family tradition. Let's have a look and see if what I'm saying to you dear
listeners is true. Let's have a look at a list of crimes which would have carried a lighter jail
sentence than what they were trying to burden on this poor and brilliant man.
Let's see what the threat of trying to free academic information, how horrible the American
government thinks it is. To try to educate the public, how dare you, Aaron Schwartz, try to allow
Americans to get smarter. You want to know what's up? What's up? Less a crime than trying to free
up information. Let's have a look at a list. You can follow us on the show notes to read the
full description of these. Manslaughter carries a lighter sentence than what they were going to do
to Aaron Schwartz. Bank robbery carries a lighter sentence than what they were going to do to Aaron
Schwartz. Selling of child pornography a unique crime because the only way to produce
child porn is to sexually molest a child. Selling child pornography carries a lesser penalty.
Less a jail time and less a fines. Then what Aaron Schwartz faced.
Knowingly spreading AIDS. Selling slaves. Genocidal eugenics. People who engage try to engage in
racial cleansing will go to less punishment than what they were trying to do to Aaron Schwartz.
Helping al-Qaeda develop a nuclear bomb carries a lesser jail sentence than what Aaron Schwartz
faced. Violence at international airports threatening the present of the United States of America.
Less a sentence. Assulting a Supreme Court justice. A lesser offense.
Do you really believe that it was about the jace toward papers they were doing this to him?
It was not about the jace toward papers. It was because he stored the online petition to stop
soap of people and it garnered hundreds of thousands of signatures. This was revenge.
Look, this newscast is about truth. This is an institution dedicated to the truth and our
enemy as computer people, as people who are trying to bring up humanity, is to fight the people
who are trying to keep humanity down and the people who are trying to keep humanity down,
all the people who work and live within the bulk of Washington, DC.
It's a fact. Wake up and smell the coffee. It's time to read Gene Shops from dictatorship to
democracy. It's time to get a new government to replace this broken one.
I'm not advocating violent resistance. Gene Shops' work is about non-violence. It's time to
take our government back. It's time to go from dictatorship to democracy. And their abuse of
arid shwarts proves it makes it a fact.
Lawrence Lesslie's blog says it so eloquently.
The property Aaron had stolen, we were told, was worth millions of dollars with the hint and
then the suggestion that his aim must have been to profit from his crime. But anyone who says that
there is money to be made and the stash of academic articles is either an idiot or a liar.
It was clear what this was not, yet our government continued to push as if it had caught
the 9-11 terrorists red-handed.
Excuse me for being emotional.
But I'm reminded of the first line of Alan Ginsburg poem, Howl.
I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness, starving hysterical and naked.
You know who else is emotional about this?
Well, let's go back to Lawrence Lesslie, legendary professor.
He broke down in democracy now and tears over this. You know who else is in mourning?
Let's have a look at the Trader Roll call, Cory Doctorow, Glenn Greenwald,
Brigitte Hansditter, Trevor Tim. This is heartbreaking shit.
Not to mention, the 26-year-old man in the prime of his life hounded until the point where he hung
himself. What the fuck about Quinn Norton, his woman?
Who treated her daughter like his own?
How much destruction of the American people are we going to have to stand at the hands of the
1% before something is done? You know, one of the other, one of my fellow podcasts is I admire.
It's Thomas Commandland Gideon. You can find links in the show notes that listen to his
audio eulogy called no one told you how it would be. Thomas Gideon works trying to reform
out government, trying to work in policy. I had never heard him go this far. You know, me,
I'm kind of raw. I let hang out what I think. I let hang out what I think.
And this man's reserved and to hear it, you should hear it too if you're a fan of listening
to people's thoughts on podcast. But let's have a look at something much more objective than my
ranting and raving. And of course, you know, before I leave my rant, I'm going to point out again
nonviolent revolution. I would never advocate violence. Let's keep it clear. But the
let's keep it out something else clear. Out government is broken. It needs to be swapped.
But let's look at something a little bit more. I don't know. Formerly journalistic. Let's call
it that. Someone with a more formal training in journalism. Let's have a look at Mike Masnick's
article in TechDirt dated January the 14th, 2013. Link in the show notes. Used under permission
to quote, full. Some thoughts on Aaron Schwartz. This past weekend, tragically, has been way too much
about death for me. On Friday evening, I found out that a close relative had just passed away
and had just spent some time talking to other family members, crying, figuring out how I was going
to fly across the country for a funeral. I'd finally had enough and was about to shut down go to
sleep when an email popped up from a friend telling me that Aaron Schwartz had killed himself. And
suddenly there was more death to think about in a very different way. The past few days,
I've been thinking a lot about both my relative and Aaron, two very different people who probably
only share the end date of their lives. I'm mourning them both since Aaron was a public figure
and relevant to what we write about here. I wanted to write something about him even as the
morning sector of my brain tries to figure out how you grieve for multiple people at the same time.
I did not know Aaron all that well, but I did know him. I've been reading many of his stories from
those who did know him quite well, and it's amazingly touching, but I want to share my short story
because it's what keeps running through my mind. In my head, there are a few key moments that I
keep thinking about concerning Aaron. One is the first time I met him. I can't place the exact
time, but I think it was a decade ago at a conference in Santa Clara. I remember the hotel well.
He was sitting at a table and wow, did he look young, very much like the kid in this photo by
Richard Gibson that Aaron posted to his own website showing himself talking to Larry Lessig back in
2002 at the age of 15. I knew back then that he'd been one of the creators of one version of RSS
and that he and Dave Winer didn't get along because of some disputes over that, and I'd remembered
hearing that he was young, but seeing that little kid sitting there was still really surprising.
I talked to him very briefly at that event and was immediately struck by how sharp he was.
I also remember him helping to launch creative comments, and I thought that, at nearly twice his
age, I'd done so little. I started reading his blogs when after that, which was an interesting
mix of content from technical to political to philosophical to personal, when he stored college
at Sanford. Something about his blog posts were both captivating and horrifying at the same time.
Describing in vivid details, the kinds of thoughts many of us have when we go to college for the
first time, and are trying to figure out how and where we fit into the world. What struck me
as so odd was that because of everything else he had done, my mind just defaulted to assuming
that he was completely mature in all aspects of his life, but he was still just a kid.
The blog post I remember came maybe a month or so after he had gotten to Sanford,
and involved him telling the story, again, in both captivating and horrifying detail
about him hooking up with a girl. My memory is fuzzy at this point, and a very cursory spin
through his blog doesn't turn up the post, but I remember her joking about him being famous,
which led to the usual sort of awkwardness that comes with early make-out sessions,
but all described in detail. I also vaguely remember some sort of follow-up in the king that the
girl was mortified about the public reporting on their rendezvous. It was Aaron sorting out his
life in public. That may be more common these days, but it was certainly relatively new back then,
and it was so disjointed from the professional Aaron, who had already accomplished so much. I kept
thinking, that's right, he's just a kid. But the kid grew up. He left Sanford. He joined
his first white combination class. He did a stop that didn't go far, but which eventually led
him to joining the early red team. Here and there, he kept popping up, always doing something
interesting. The next time I came across him was in 2009, when the FBI investigated him for daring
to download a ton of public domain court documents from Pacer. While Pacer tries to charge
ten cents a page, at the time it was eight cents a page. The documents are still public domain.
Many people find this annoying, and Aaron was a true crusader for the right to information.
So when he found out that some libraries were experimenting with free Pacer access
as a trial, he went to one, set a perl script, and had it cycle through tons of documents,
downloading them for him to collect. Eventually, the FBI realized it had no case.
Freely offered access to public domain material, is legal to use.
Obviously that foreshadowed his more recent legal troubles. Over the last couple of years,
Aaron and I emailed occasionally, he and I were two of the only people, along with Senator
Wyden, who seemed really concerned about the predecessor to Soapa people called Hoika.
And he had talked to me about helping get more people aware of the problems of the bill.
And then when Soapa people came along, we were in touch over the efforts against that,
along with many others as well. But I also remember the last two times I heard from Aaron.
Last summer out of the blue, he emailed me to say that he'd run across a minor but annoying
technical error. On TechDirt, and suggested how to fix it. And then in October,
when he finally got his FOIA request returned, concerning ISIS-domain seizures,
he emailed to let me know. I never communicated with him directly about his ongoing case,
but I remember being both surprised and impressed, and less than surprised once I thought about it,
that he continued to push forward on his activist causes, even while facing trial for one of them.
The only time I ever met Aaron in person was that one time, a decade ago. I probably emailed with
him less than a hundred times. With most of those coming over the past couple of years,
I always knew he was complex, wise way beyond his years, and some things, and still figuring out
other things at the same time. But the news of his suicide definitely took me by surprise,
though others have pointed out that he's hinted at such things in the past.
I will also say that I know there's been a rush to blame the lawsuit against him on this.
In fact, our September post detailing the new charges against him got tremendous amount of
traffic over the weekend. Aaron's own family has stated, quote,
Aaron's death is not simply a personal tragedy. It is the product of a criminal justice system
right with intimidation and prosecutorial overreach. Decisions made by officials in Massachusetts
Attorney's Office and a MIT contributed to his death and the quote.
Just as I was hesitant to blame Laurie Drew or Daran Ravi for actions that were connected to
later suicides of people they had pointed, it still feels wrong to say that case itself led
to his suicide without more details. That said, as Tim Lee noted, knowing Aaron, he would be the
first in line to suggest the value of using the circumstances of his own death to get reform.
Of the massively broken computer Ford and Abuse Act, which he was charged under.
Again, as detail in our earlier post, as well as early analysis, the case against him was a joke
involved massive charges for downloading information that was made freely available to a campus
network. He was on. At best, we would have seen the trespassing citation, but instead he was facing
decades in jail and seven figure finds for accessing information. It really showed a case where
the fed seemed to be going after Aaron because they didn't like him, and as we've seen,
when the feds don't like you, they can make your life hell. J. Stewart, the supposedly harmed party,
won nothing to do with the case. The feds just seemed to want to make an example out of Aaron
for the crime of wanting to access to knowledge. It would be great to see Aaron Schwartz act to reform
the worst parts of the CFA. It might not be his biggest legacy, but it would be a good one to add
to the long list. Larry Lester, who knows more about Aaron in the case against him,
than most people has a tremendously powerful post, calling up the federal government in MIT
for their actions in the case against Aaron, suggesting that the feds offered up a plea deal,
but Aaron would not take anything that would have described him as a felon. More is going to come
out on what happened, I'm sure, and the government is not going to look good. If you want to read
more thoughts on Aaron from people who knew him much better than I, I suggest you read the post
by Cory Doctor and Daniel Bryan. Also Matthew Ingram has been curating a list of some of the
more interesting remembrances, and a tumbler for remember Aaron Schwartz is filling up with wonderful
remembrances. There are so many sad things about this story, but the biggest is the most obvious,
knowing just how much Aaron had accomplished already in his short life,
combined with his drive and determination, will now never know how much more he would have accomplished
down the road, and every single one of us will lead less fulfilling lives because of that loss.
He was still just a kid, a kid who had already accomplished amazing things.
Links to articles in the show notes relevant to this, Larry Lessick's prosecutor's bully,
Quinn Norton's, my Aaron Schwartz whom I loved, Aaron Schwartz faced more severe prison term
than killer slave dealers and bank robbers. Link to this article I just read,
and link to Thomas Commandland Gideon's podcast, no one told you how hard it would be.
Reading of Tech.Occala Mike Mastic in Toto, used under a range permission.
Thank you for listening to me on this. Good evening.
Other headlines in the news, to read these stories, follow the links in the show notes.
Rapid DNA coming soon to a police department or immigration office near you.
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Views of the story authors reflect their own opinions and not necessarily those of TGTM News.
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