Re: Petition to have MIT and US Govt. issue an apologies for prosecuting Aaron Schwartz

On 13 January 2013 13:20, Harry Halpin <hhalpin@ibiblio.org> wrote:

> I made a petition to demand an from MIT and the US Attorney of
> Massachusetts apologies for their prosecution of Aaron Schwartz, a
> prosecution that his parents say is partly to blame for his suicide. The US
> Federal Government is also added since laws on the federal level allow this
> kind of absurd prosecution. Aaron Schwartz was part of the Semantic Web
> community and the loss to future generations is tremendous. Feel free to
> sign:
>
>
> https://secure.avaaz.org/en/petition/Federal_Government_and_MIT_issue_a_formal_apologies_for_the_death_of_Aaron_Schwartz/?wgeiRd
>
> >From the official statement of Swartz's family:
>
>     "Aaron's death is not simply a personal tragedy. It is the product of
> a criminal justice system rife with intimidation and prosecutorial
> overreach. Decisions made by officials in the Massachusetts US Attorney's
> office and at MIT contributed to his death. The US Attorney's office
> pursued an exceptionally harsh array of charges, carrying potentially over
> 30 years in prison, to punish an alleged crime that had no victims.
> Meanwhile, unlike JSTOR, MIT refused to stand up for Aaron and its own
> community's most cherished principles."
>

54,209 Signatures:

"Require free access over the Internet to scientific journal articles
arising from taxpayer-funded research."

https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/require-free-access-over-internet-scientific-journal-articles-arising-taxpayer-funded-research/wDX82FLQ

Harry, MIT president responds here:

http://pastebin.com/eFa8GdGp