I cannot begin to explain my feelings about the loss of Aaron Swartz.
His battle is closely related to ours. His life - proof that we live in a neo-feudal corporate world, where knowledge is the new land, and its large owners crush rebellion with an iron fist. The new castles have paywalls instead of granite. The new knights are IP lawyers. And any scientist or knowledge creator you know is usually a serf on the lands of some larger institution.
He was a brilliant kid with a vision of a world where knowledge flows freely and collaboration is possible across firewalls and borders. He committed a symbolic crime, an act of meaningful disobedience such as is encouraged of us in the Declaration of Independence. And they killed him.
A Data Crusader, a Defendant and Now, a Cause
His battle is closely related to ours. His life - proof that we live in a neo-feudal corporate world, where knowledge is the new land, and its large owners crush rebellion with an iron fist. The new castles have paywalls instead of granite. The new knights are IP lawyers. And any scientist or knowledge creator you know is usually a serf on the lands of some larger institution.
He was a brilliant kid with a vision of a world where knowledge flows freely and collaboration is possible across firewalls and borders. He committed a symbolic crime, an act of meaningful disobedience such as is encouraged of us in the Declaration of Independence. And they killed him.
A Data Crusader, a Defendant and Now, a Cause
