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Uncategorized Wednesday, July 20th 2011 at 11:29 am

Former Reddit Co-Owner Arrested for Excessive, Suspicious JSTOR Use

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Yesterday, Aaron Swartz, who had a brief, but notable stake in Reddit when they acquired his company Infogami in 2006, was arrested for downloading upwards of 4.5 million articles from the JSTOR academic archive, willfully evading MIT’s attempts to stop him. The charges, according to Ars Technica, allege that Swartz “unlawfully obtain[ed] information” and “recklessly damag[ed]” a protected computer. Considering JSTOR is an academic, electronic library and most schools pay for unlimited access, these charges straddle a weird line between Swartz’s potentially authorized uses and his suspected unauthorized intent.

David Segal, an executive from the advocacy group Demand Progress that Swartz helped found, likened the charges to “trying to put someone in jail for allegedly checking too many books out of the library.” While this may technically be the case, Swartz’s methods of downloading this articles were decidedly suspicious, and clearly, defiantly against the wishes of MIT.

Starting in September 2010, Swartz purchased a laptop, registered it with a false name and began running a script to download as many JSTOR articles as possible. Once JSTOR detected the script and blocked his IP, Swartz took more measures such as changing his IP and purchasing a second laptop until JSTOR access was blocked for the whole of the MIT campus. When the block was lifted weeks later, Swartz allegedly entered a network closet, hardwired into the network, restarted his script and hid the laptop and several hard-drives under a box to avoid discovery. Months later, Swartz returned to retrieve the hardware, apparently shielding his face with a bike helmet in the process.

It has been suggested (and understandably so) that Swartz’s intention was to distribute these documents, many of which are copyrighted and licensed by JSTOR, for free. However, there is no hard evidence to support that claim. While criminal charges are still being pressed, Wired.com reports that JSTOR has declined to press any charges of its own. The issue has yet to go to trial, but it’s possible that Swartz’s downloading and “use” of the JSTOR articles is not technically against the law despite obviously being against the spirit of both the archive and its terms of service. Swartz’s blatant misuse of the MIT system in the face of consistent measures to put and end to that misuse, however, may land Swartz in some more legal trouble and said misuse may retroactively delegitimize his use of the JSTOR network. As for now, according to the Boston Globe, Swartz is out on $100,000 dollar bail.

Read the detailed charges against Swartz here.

(via Ars Technica)

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  • Anonymous

    subscriptions to electronic databases are bankrupting academic libraries.  they dont own the content, so what happens when they cant afford the bill anymore?  the investment in the collection is lost, and this is serious amounts of money.  like hundreds of thousands of dollars per year.  stealing copyrighted work isnt the solution, but something needs to happen to lessen the cost for libraries and maintain the access of information. 

  • Anonymous

    Meanwhile, brick and mortar libraries are going under at an alarming rate.  As an academic, I trust that the fees I pay to my school and the work I do for them will help to pay for these services, and yet the library is under ongoing threat.  In the State of Michigan, the previous governor allowed a public university to essentially sack the state collection for the “good stuff” while ignoring the remainder of the collection.  Not everything is digitized and just who has access is becoming an increasing concern.  I agree with patientetherizd, however, that stealing the work is not the answer.

  • Patientetherizd

    the library does get a cut of those sweet, sweet tuition fees, but its not proportionate to the rising costs of electronic subscriptions.  they are easily the most expensive aspect of a librarys yearly budget.  i worked at an academic library one year where we couldnt buy a single new book for the collection because the entire purchasing budget was needed just to maintain the databases.  like kwdragon said, not everything is digitized!  physical books still have a role to play in 2011.

    another problem is the way librarys have to buy access to these subscriptions.  you buy service packages that come with a set list of databases, and the more expensive packages come with more databases.  in other words, if you only need one database in a package you get stuck paying for the rest you didnt.  it would be more cost efficient to pick your databases a la carte.  sigh, this is my complaint about cable service providers, too.

  • Ofreo

    When I was a student a few years ago in a non traditional university, I found it difficult to get needed information to conduct research and complete my work. Although I had access to some databases, many articles were just not available to me without pay. While I understand there is a cost with distribution of these papers, it would seem most of them should be free to advance education. I have a hard time with the idea that everything is used to make a profit these days. Not a good way to advance a society. 

  • Native Ity

    Thrown in jail for checking out too many books, how petty is the American justice system for fucks sake I thought we had better things to worry about.

  • Suckmynuts

    “subscriptions to electronic databases are bankrupting academic libraries.”
    “Meanwhile, brick and mortar libraries are going under at an alarming rate.”

    ROFL. STFU psychopath newbs. Is pieces of paper the only thing you can ever frame anything in.

    you bizarre psychopaths. Are you ever capable of analyzing anything not in terms of pieces of papers. Do you understand that creating an order dependent on your primitive concepts like “sellling” things is already absurd. Get some brain power maggot cockroaches: there are an infinate number of other orders we could create where such primitive issues are not an issue to begin with.

  • http://twitter.com/SoundSystemSDC Steve in Bloomington

    Man, that guy was too into knowledge! Let’s lock his booklearning ass up before he hurts somebody.

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_Z4CJFSWSF6NJQ2QO56FEBHKHJM K

    No, no, no, sweetie.  They’re not trying to lock him up for learning – you silly thing – they’re trying to lock him up because he’s a freakin’ thief.

    Need the difference clarified?  If I broke into your house to steal some food (I’m not really starving or even peckish…just a bit bored, maybe) and then shared it with my friends (also not really hungry, but willing to partake of the spoils) I would be facing prison time *not* because I eat, but because I BROKE INTO YOUR HOUSE.

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_Z4CJFSWSF6NJQ2QO56FEBHKHJM K

    I agree!  I think your boss would, too!  I mean, it’s hard to get the revenue to pay you for your work!  It would advance society if you just did your job for free.

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_Z4CJFSWSF6NJQ2QO56FEBHKHJM K

    But that’s not what he did.

  • Reddit? LMFAO

    All the ones thinking he got arrested for reading/learning w.e are clearly reddit fanboys. GTFO.