(2013-01-12) Swartz Suicide

Aaron Swartz killed himself, exactly 2 years after being arrested for the JSTOR mess. I never met him f2f, but so sad that someone who had accomplished so much and was clearly such an idealist couldn't make peace with the world. A victim of the War On The Net? Why was the Secret Service involved?

Links:

• by Quinn Norton
• by Cory Doctorow
• by Matt Haughey
• by Henry Farrell
• by Larry Lessig
  • and again, focusing on his JSTOR persecution/prosecution
• [by](http://www.markbernstein.org/Jan13/Aaron Swartz.html) Mark Bernstein
• by Carl Malamud
• by Eugene Eric Kim (with photo of 14yo Aaron with Ted Nelson and Douglas Engelbart) {{http://eekim.com/files/2013/01/ted_nelson-aaron_swartz-doug_engelbart-1024x768.jpg|aaron|width="100",align="right"}}
• Feb04 update: by Taren S K. I believe that Aaron’s death was not caused by depression... For much of the last 8 months of his life, we lived together, commuted together, and worked in the same office — and I was never worried he was depressed until the last 24 hours of his life... I believe Aaron’s death was caused by exhaustion, by fear, and by uncertainty. I believe that Aaron’s death was caused by a persecution and a prosecution that had already wound on for 2 years (what happened to our right to a speedy trial?) and had already drained all of his financial resources.
• Feb07 long review by JustinPeters.