Report: Hacktivist Aaron Swartz arrest was a webcam stakeout

Hacker activist Aaron Swartz was nailed with an MIT webcam stakeout, and the U.S, Secret Service was involved from the start, according to the arrest report. Wired News has more. (via Ryan Singel)

• [Paul]

  “ faces 35 years in prison” 
  Wow. You can get less than that for killing somebody. 

  • [hassenpfeffer]

    No, there’s nothing wrong with the American justice system, why do you ask?

  • [Denise *]

    or a hundred.

  • [Cowicide]

    faces 35 years in prison”  Wow. You can get less than that for killing somebody.

    Should it be any surprise?  Hacktivists must be stopped.  They are gaining too much power.

    If you don’t have time to read the book, watch The Matrix film series (especially focus on part 2) and imagine that our real-world corporations today have gained artificial intelligence (corporate personhood with charters and bylaws) and are now like the machines that have taken control in The Matrix film.  The machines (corporate entities) need us to survive, but at the same time “they” want to keep us all under control (for no other reason than that’s what they were eventually designed to do by their architects).

    The few corporatists at the top of the wealth and power pyramid that live an amazingly decadent life of luxury and power, need to control the matrix (the media) the best they can despite us (the bewildered herd) in order to keep this status quo and maintain their filthy rich lifestyles and dynasties.  Lose control of the message, you upset the herd… and you get an Arab Spring, don’t you?

    Can you imagine an American Spring?  Most corporatists shudder at the thought.  But we shouldn’t.  It would make us the greatest generation (instead of whatever we are now.. meh).

    The mainstream media has evolved (influence from machines, not humans) into something very sophisticated and incredibly dangerous.  More powerful than government, in my opinion.  The government has representatives the bewildered herd can point to but the very nature of the setup of corporations allows corporatists to hide from the herd without any real repercussions.  Can anyone deny this fact at this point after digging through charred carcass of our economy?  Who has gone to jail for these gargantuan frauds against the public?  Not one corporatist.  Not one.

    It’s so out of control, that even some of the corporatists are starting to realize this train steaming forward might derail before the end of their lifetimes (and some even seem to care about their children’s future).  But the majority of these megalomaniacal, sociopathic corporatists are blinded with power and when hackers of any flavor poke holes in the matrix, they most certainly need to be neutralized.
    Look inside the Matrix (the media) and there are good programs (programming), bad programming and perhaps some evil in betwixt (you know who they are).  Same goes for the hackers… white hats, black hats, grey hats (and some kids who’ve had a fuckin’ nuff, God bless them).

    This is war and there are real casualties in every sense of the word including loss of freedom.  I caught a case and faced around 10 years in federal lockup for much, much less than this… but that was quite a few years ago while the machines and the matrix were still much less powerful than they are today.Today? I would not have gotten off with probation and most certainly would do many, many years in a federal prison.  Back then, they were mostly confused about what I had done and prosecutors weren’t sure how to build a proper case against me anyway.

    Their anger was mostly at my silence.  Actually, they became excessively livid and my right to remain silent only seemed to be a right to be threatened repercussions if I didn’t give up that right.I never injured a soul and didn’t steal a penny from anyone (not even from the corporations).  Although, by getting caught it did cost the government some money prosecuting me so I’m sorry I slipped and got got.  ;DBut even back then despite not stealing a penny or injuring anyone, I faced the same amount of prison time for a murderer.I do take some solace that they are attempting to impose such draconian measures against hacktivists…  it shows that they are scared of them winning.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fkuOAY-S6OY

    • [Sana Souratha]

      Well at least he was trying to protect commentors like us from loosing our freedom of speech with his Demand Progress project.

• [hassenpfeffer]

  Oooh, and he had the AUDACITY to hide his face from surveillance cameras. Big Brother reminds you to look directly into every camera you encounter and give it a big grin as well as front and side profiles.

• [technobach]

  “For its part, JSTOR says it worked with Swartz’s lawyers to get the data
  back, which it said satisfied its interest in the matter.”

  Because, you know, Swartz downloaded them in such a way that JSTOR no longer had them.

  • [LinkMan]

    You know what they meant.  They got the data “back” the same way the State Department wishes it got its data “back” from Bradley Manning before he passed it on to Assange.

• [somnambulist]

  In America, if you’re white, belong in the economic middle class or upper class and are gifted with intelligence, you can choose to go 2 ways: 1- be apolitical, (essentially a nihilist) and you get to break every law in the book and never get caught – or, 2 – you can notice all the injustice for pretty much everyone that’s not in your race/social class, you can notice that we don’t really live in a ‘free’ society and notice that our political system is essentially a oligarchy and get political and start organizing and speaking out - at which point you better not even jaywalk – because we live in a police surveillance state – and the second you get political you bet your ass you will now be watched, if not entrapped – and if ever caught for anything the maximum penalties will be immediately pursued. 

  I feel for him.  But he’s pretty rich (and white) and has some semi-powerful allies - so he’ll have a lot of advantages going into this that many do not have – I wish him the best of luck and all my support.

• [bkad]

  This is not intended to be flamebait, so bear with me. How do we decide if someone is a hacktivist? (or even a regular activist for that matter)? Do you go with self-identification, as we usually handle matters of gender or religion (person says they are X, so they are X)? Or is there some generally agreed-upon standard? Probably going by self-identification is the only safe way to go.

  • [Cowicide]

    Best place to start, in my opinion… and brought to you by the hacktivists that run Wikipedia:

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hacker_(programmer_subculture)#Hacktivism

• [egoVirus]

  Seems like prosecutors have their work cut out for them on this case, unless they just straight up cheat, and when have they ever done that?

• [jphilby]

  I wonder if the JSTOR will ever sell Apps?

  “Get a copy of jTunes, and you’ll get free Historical Scholarly Podcasts sent directly to your cubicle! Never research again! This week: actually read Einstein’s Annus Mirabulis!”

  • [Cowicide]

    Shawshank Redemption?  I wasn’t in that one. ;D

• [Sc Ca]

  I am curious about this, putting The Matrix, Hackers, and the Shawshank Redemption aside for a moment. This guy essentially was just downloading too many of these free articles? Or these millions articles that were just stored somewhere on a site unsecured? Like, it was as if he went to a giant library and copied their microfiche furtively. My main question being, Were they so mad about this because JSTOR wants to monetize these documents at some point? Or just because it was a “hacker” intrusion and some IT guy didn’t like it(and phoned the FEDS) and stung him?