Aaron Swartz commits suicide

Man this so sucks.<p>If you hit someone with enough felony counts sooner or later something can snap. This in response to those that claim the DOJ didn't have anything to do with Aaron killing himself.<p>For some people the mere fact of being suspected of a crime they didn't commit is enough to push them over the edge. When you're placed in a holding cell the police will remove your laces from your boots so you don't hang yourself, that's how heavy being imprisoned can weigh on some.<p>Aaron did something that he thought was right, that he truly believed in and that upset a large number of applecarts and that had far reaching implications, had the proverbial book thrown at him and then some. The prospect of significant amounts of jail time (35 years for downloading scientific papers, it shouldn't even <i>be</i> a crime) and/or a felony record must have weighed very heavy on him.<p>For a person that is of a very stable mental make-up that would already be extreme pressure.<p>For someone with a mental issue it may very well be all it takes.<p>Aaron was inspiring to me, I think that no copyrighted piece of paper is worth a human life and that the DOJ, even if they are not directly responsible at least indirectly carry some of the responsibility here for beating down someone who was fighting for an extremely good cause in a somewhat haphazard way. The letter of the law <i>and</i> the spirit of the law should both be taken into account.<p>I hope those that had a hand in Aarons' continued prosecution will sleep miserably for a long time to come. Likely it won't weigh on their consciousness at all.

I never met Aaron Swartz but always wanted to. His work has had a profound impact on my life.<p>His blog was thought-provoking. <a href="http://www.aaronsw.com/weblog/" rel="nofollow">http://www.aaronsw.com/weblog/</a><p>His work on the RSS 1.0 Specification enabled richer, more efficient information consumption. <a href="http://web.resource.org/rss/1.0/spec" rel="nofollow">http://web.resource.org/rss/1.0/spec</a><p>His work on Markdown enabled intuitive, unobtrusive formatting and structuring of information in plaintext and conversion to HTML. <a href="http://daringfireball.net/projects/markdown/#acknowledgements" rel="nofollow">http://daringfireball.net/projects/markdown/#acknowledgement...</a><p>His work on reddit enabled thousands—now millions—to share online information in a social manner. <a href="http://www.aaronsw.com/weblog/rewritingreddit" rel="nofollow">http://www.aaronsw.com/weblog/rewritingreddit</a><p>His work on the web.py framework gave countless Python programmers a head-start on serving information through web applications. <a href="http://webpy.org/" rel="nofollow">http://webpy.org/</a><p>His work with DemandProgress gave Americans a political voice to protect and win back their freedom and the freedom of information. <a href="http://blog.demandprogress.org/people" rel="nofollow">http://blog.demandprogress.org/people</a><p>His work with Creative Commons promoted the freedom of information and fair use and helped inform content creators of options other than copyright. <a href="http://creativecommons.org/" rel="nofollow">http://creativecommons.org/</a><p>Thank you, Aaron Swartz, for all the above and all the other activism and works (<a href="https://github.com/aaronsw" rel="nofollow">https://github.com/aaronsw</a>) I haven't mentioned here. You'll be missed and remembered by many.<p>.

Better eulogies will follow, to be sure, but in the mean time, much of what can be said about him is captured in a touching talk he gave called "How to Get a Job Like Mine" [1]. What I think is especially touching about this is how he gently deconstructs his success, demystifying his own legend by pulling back the curtain on what would have otherwise appeared to be a string of miraculous accomplishments. In the process, he reveals himself to be a sensitive, seemingly grateful, and thoughtful person.<p>May he be remembered well; he seems to deserve it.<p>[1] <a href="https://aaronsw.jottit.com/howtoget" rel="nofollow">https://aaronsw.jottit.com/howtoget</a>

It's easy to deride suicide but fact of the matter is that it is the final but a very powerful option we have at our disposal. Instead of saying that a particular person should not have committed suicide, our hope should be that if a suicide happens, it is well thought through and is not done in haste. If a particular person decides that decades of painful life is much worse than simply ending the existence, who are we to question such a personal decision?<p>Of course, if everything was alright, I would have loved to see Aaron existing in this world for many more years and do wonderful things but not knowing what led him to this step and how he judged the current/future life for himself. Simply commenting that he should not have committed suicide is being insensitive to a person who has already done so much great work for humanity.<p>Life is not <i>always</i> better than no life. Context matters. A lot.

Here's the JSTOR Statement related to the downloading incident: <a href="http://about.jstor.org/news/jstor-statement-misuse-incident-and-criminal-case" rel="nofollow">http://about.jstor.org/news/jstor-statement-misuse-incident-...</a><p><i>What Happened<p>Last fall and winter, JSTOR experienced a significant misuse of our database. A substantial portion of our publisher partners’ content was downloaded in an unauthorized fashion using the network at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, one of our participating institutions. The content taken was systematically downloaded using an approach designed to avoid detection by our monitoring systems.<p>The downloaded content included more than 4 million articles, book reviews, and other content from our publisher partners' academic journals and other publications; it did not include any personally identifying information about JSTOR users.<p>We stopped this downloading activity, and the individual responsible, Mr. Swartz, was identified. We secured from Mr. Swartz the content that was taken, and received confirmation that the content was not and would not be used, copied, transferred, or distributed.<p>The criminal investigation and today’s indictment of Mr. Swartz has been directed by the United States Attorney’s Office. It was the government’s decision whether to prosecute, not JSTOR’s. As noted previously, our interest was in securing the content. Once this was achieved, we had no interest in this becoming an ongoing legal matter.</i>

Thank you all for your kind words and thoughts. Aaron has been depressed about his case/upcoming trial, but we had no idea what he was going through was this painful.<p>Aaron was a terrific young man. He contributed a lot to the world in his short life and I regret the loss of all the things he had yet to accomplish. As you can imagine, we all miss him dearly. The grief is unfathomable.<p>Aaron's mother

Aaron suffered from a brain disorder. He had documented periods of extreme withdrawn depression and others of mild manic productivity.<p>Because of that brain disorder, perhaps because it was not attacked with the requisite treatment, he is dead.<p>If you or a loved one are ever feeling suicidal, depressed, or are acting abnormally erratic, contact an expert. It's nothing to be ashamed about. It's just a lottery of genetic expression.<p>There are others going through the same thing. There are excellent treatments available, and they get better each year. You might save someone's life.<p><a href="http://www.reddit.com/r/suicidewatch" rel="nofollow">http://www.reddit.com/r/suicidewatch</a> <a href="http://www.reddit.com/r/depression" rel="nofollow">http://www.reddit.com/r/depression</a> <a href="http://www.reddit.com/r/bipolarreddit" rel="nofollow">http://www.reddit.com/r/bipolarreddit</a><p>I find it bizarre how quickly our minds jump to impossibly unlikely reasons when tragic events like this happen. Troubles with the justice department don't alone cause a bright young man to kill himself.<p>&#62; I was miserable. I couldn't stand San Francisco. I couldn't stand office life. I couldn't stand Wired. I took a long Christmas vacation. I got sick. I thought of suicide. I ran from the police. And when I got back on Monday morning, I was asked to resign.<p>&#62; I followed these rules. And here I am today, with a dozen projects on my plate and my stress level through the roof once again.<p><a href="https://aaronsw.jottit.com/howtoget" rel="nofollow">https://aaronsw.jottit.com/howtoget</a><p><a href="http://www.aaronsw.com/weblog/dying" rel="nofollow">http://www.aaronsw.com/weblog/dying</a><p>&#62; I have a lot of illnesses. I don’t talk about it much, for a variety of reasons. I feel ashamed to have an illness. (It sounds absurd, but there still is an enormous stigma around being sick.)<p>&#62; Sadly, depression (like other mental illnesses, especially addiction) is not seen as “real” enough to deserve the investment and awareness of conditions like breast cancer (1 in 8) or AIDS (1 in 150). And there is, of course, the shame.<p><a href="http://www.aaronsw.com/weblog/verysick" rel="nofollow">http://www.aaronsw.com/weblog/verysick</a><p>In his short life Aaron has produced a wonderful collection of writing, code, and actions, which will all be available for years to come. He will be missed. His effects have not yet ceased.

Fuck this country.<p>EDIT: The guy was facing 13 felony counts for downloading academic articles.

I've thought of suicide. Not "seriously," but it's crossed my mind. Sometimes life just seems so hard.<p>My reaction to this is that he was a brilliant guy, and it was such a waste. Such a pointless waste.<p>It makes the idea of giving up myself seem so wrong.<p>Rest in Peace Aaron. I'm sorry it had to end this way.

This is terrible news.<p>Depression is treatable. If you find that you are thinking about suicide, even speculatively, seek help <i>immediately</i>.<p>You are not alone and it <i>will</i> get better.

For some reason this is a shock to me. It shouldn't be, I didn't know the guy. But I was just playing with web.py framework. It is so strange, I thought just today, I wonder if Aaron would accept a pull request, I could see a few things to improve.<p>Looking back at his activity on github he was pulling in commits less than a week ago:<p><a href="https://github.com/aaronsw?tab=activity" rel="nofollow">https://github.com/aaronsw?tab=activity</a><p>I don't know details about the "JSTOR" case or about what he did at Reddit but I can see in his code that he cared and wanted to make something better, smaller and elegant. I respect that and it is a loss to have him gone forever.

Meanwhile, the guys who wiped out literally trillions of dollars of wealth by cratered the global economy in an orgy of greed, fraud, and reckless disregard for everything but their own inflated bonuses couldn't get arrested if they tired.<p>There are a lot of things wrong with this situation, but the egregiously misaligned priorities of the US Attorneys are near the top of the list.

Aaron Swartz may have left everything to Givewell. This makes it even sadder somehow in ways I can't fully describe.<p><a href="http://www.reddit.com/user/AaronSw#c4e7n4h" rel="nofollow">http://www.reddit.com/user/AaronSw#c4e7n4h</a><p>The same page shows that the last Reddit comment he ever made was on /r/HPMOR. I don't think I noticed at the time - I don't think I knew he was a fan.<p>I have said and will say that Aaron Swartz acted heroically in trying to free the scientific literature. It was a good try.

Aaron Swartz's presence in various networks:<p>In HN: <a href="http://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=aaronsw" rel="nofollow">http://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=aaronsw</a><p>Pinboard: <a href="https://pinboard.in/u:aaronsw" rel="nofollow">https://pinboard.in/u:aaronsw</a><p>His last tweet was on Jan 9th, <a href="https://twitter.com/aaronsw" rel="nofollow">https://twitter.com/aaronsw</a><p>Reddit: <a href="https://aaronsw.jottit.com/reddit" rel="nofollow">https://aaronsw.jottit.com/reddit</a><p>Google Scholar: <a href="http://scholar.google.com/citations?user=PGTlB14AAAAJ" rel="nofollow">http://scholar.google.com/citations?user=PGTlB14AAAAJ</a><p>Writings: <a href="https://aaronsw.jottit.com/writings" rel="nofollow">https://aaronsw.jottit.com/writings</a><p>---------------------------------------------<p>Things he made:<p><a href="https://www.jottit.com/" rel="nofollow">https://www.jottit.com/</a><p><a href="http://openlibrary.org/" rel="nofollow">http://openlibrary.org/</a><p><a href="http://watchdog.net/" rel="nofollow">http://watchdog.net/</a><p><a href="http://reddit.com/" rel="nofollow">http://reddit.com/</a><p><a href="http://webpy.org/" rel="nofollow">http://webpy.org/</a><p>HN will miss your contributions.<p>Rest in Peace. #Love.

Headline is a little misleading as Reddit admins deny his cofounder status.<p><a href="http://www.reddit.com/r/reddit.com/comments/9r8on/aaron_swartz_cofounder_of_reddit_was_investigated/c0e2p9m" rel="nofollow">http://www.reddit.com/r/reddit.com/comments/9r8on/aaron_swar...</a><p><a href="https://twitter.com/alexisohanian/status/93374221685755904" rel="nofollow">https://twitter.com/alexisohanian/status/93374221685755904</a><p>Still very sad, of course. I was fully in support of Aaron during the JSTOR fallout.

Shocking and saddening. I've been working with Python lately and feel a particular loss because of web.py and all the other good work he did. My prayers go out to his family.<p>I wonder why some people here are assuming this tragedy is because of the JSTOR incident. It seems to me that everyone should just meditate on what's been lost, and defer judgement about why he would do this until there is evidence.

I'm speechless.<p>He had his troubles and he made some bad decisions, but it didn't have to be like this.<p>I wish his family peace and clarity in this dark hour. I'm just so sorry.

Every single person employed by the US Attorney Office involved in this tragedy should be sued to hell by the family. Have some goddamn responsibility for once.<p>This is utterly disgraceful, I feel for his family.

<a href="https://www.google.com/search?q=doj+presecute" rel="nofollow">https://www.google.com/search?q=doj+presecute</a> gives me : DOJ Will Not Prosecute Goldman Sachs in Financial ... - ABC News 9 Aug 2012 – The Justice Department has decided it will not prosecute Goldman Sachs or its employees for their role in the financial crisis...<p><a href="http://www.aaronsw.com/weblog/productivity" rel="nofollow">http://www.aaronsw.com/weblog/productivity</a><p>Share the load Even if your friends aren’t cheerful, just working on a hard problem with someone else makes it much easier. For one thing, the mental weight gets spread across both people. For another, having someone else there forces you to work instead of getting distracted.

It's always a shame when someone commits suicide in a situation like this. There's always a better option. Everyone makes mistakes.<p>I've seen this happen in my own life. I had a family friend that committed suicide after being indicted of a felony DUI charge because he swore he never would go to prison.<p>Tragic. My thoughts are with his family.

A tragedy that this caring young man has taken his own life. My heart goes out to his family.<p>This feels a bit inappropriate but at the moment I hope that some members of the US Attorney's Office are wracked by guilt.

I think it's tragic that we all, with our laws and courts and systems of 'justice', can ruin a brilliant kid's life to the point where he decides it's not worth living anymore.<p>All over 'stealing' some ideas.

<i>Here's to the crazy ones, the misfits, the rebels, the troublemakers, the round pegs in the square holes... the ones who see things differently -- they're not fond of rules... You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them, but the only thing you can't do is ignore them because they change things... they push the human race forward, and while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius, because the ones who are crazy enough to think that they can change the world, are the ones who do.</i><p>rip

This makes me think of Len Sassaman's (cypherpunk, remailer developer,etc.) suicide from 18 months ago :( It's terrible when anyone kills himself, but when it's someone who was doing something which pushed the limits like this, it's worse.

I'd like to write something nice, but I'm in too much shock to even know where to start. He showed his brilliance through code and his humanity through his writing.<p>And as much as it is "right" to respect him for his very personal decision, I can't help but wish he were still here. This is the premature end of the life of someone who could have dramatically changed the world. Reminds us that, now more than ever, that's our job here, too.

I didn't know aaronsw personally but I have just checked out his web.py that others have been praising and it's really neat because it's so simple. What an amazing piece of work. For others who may not be aware, just see this brief tutorial [1].<p>His writings on life and how to get better at it are also phenomenal [2]<p>It's very sad that aaronsw is no longer with us for he was very gifted and talented. May he rest in peace and my thoughts go out to his family and friends.<p>[1] - <a href="http://webpy.org/docs/0.3/tutorial" rel="nofollow">http://webpy.org/docs/0.3/tutorial</a> [2] - <a href="http://www.aaronsw.com/weblog/rawnerve" rel="nofollow">http://www.aaronsw.com/weblog/rawnerve</a>

I remember most of the teachings from those days, back in the early 2000's. Before hacking, before startups, before entrepreneurs, before changing the world felt like a cool, common thing.<p>Before all of that, I remember this guy doing it, doing it well. And that inspired me to believe I can do it.<p>An artist's only passion is to create, until the day you die. In between you fight all sorts of battles that they don't warn you about. But the most important being that when you create, you carry with you a savagery of sorts, of making something new, of living in the edge.<p>And it's hard to survive. Nowadays we take for granted the Google style lunches and buslines, but being at the edge of something has always been trying to eke out in an hostile environment.<p>But this guy was there, all day, all night.<p>And that's special. Because it's an isolating experience.<p>I get the same suicidal thoughts that drift in and out too. It's partly chemical and it's just your personality. When you stand outside of the system long enough, watch long enough, suffer the heartbreak of seeing the wrongs enough, you may end up there too.<p>This was the glorious ending I wished for him.<p>May he truly rest now in peace.

The other fucked up thing about this is that if he'd done this at Stanford, Berkeley, or anywhere else in the 9th Circuit (which is the best circuit!), or the 4th circuit, he wouldn't have been charged under CFAA. It's only the backward backwaters of the 5th, 7th, and 11th who would charge under CFAA. He was in the 1st, which hadn't yet ruled. SCOTUS would have been very likely to side with the 9th, since the 9th is the best in general, and was correct in this case.<p>So, yet another reason to be angry -- this case was perfect for removing ToS violations from CFAA.

This is so sad. I just responded today to an email from him about demandprogress.org. RIP.

I read this as I was preparing to head to my brothers memorial service in a couple of hours. He committed suicide last week.<p>I just wanted to say that I understand why some people do it. My brother suffered from schizophrenia - he was an incredibly nice and giving person who kept on hurting people due to his disease. I understand why he took his own life and I don't fault him for it. Of course I am incredibly sad about it and wish I could have done so much more, but 20 years of intense suffering wears on a person.<p>We don't know the exact details behind Aaron's decision. A significant percent of the people who knew Stephen, even those who knew him well, didn't know about his diagnosis either. It's impossible to draw any more conclusion than "he was suffering and couldn't bear the burden anymore". My condolences to his family, I truly know what they are going through and it's absolutely shit.

You can see some of his recent work here <a href="https://github.com/webpy/webpy" rel="nofollow">https://github.com/webpy/webpy</a>

I used to read his blog. Here's something I will always remember. When they sold Reddit to Conde Nast, back in 2007 or so, Aaron Swartz wrote something about it on his blog, saying how he felt about it and how he didn't have to worry about money anymore, etc. And then he decided to give away some money to startups in need. I replied to his blog post and he gave my old startup a $100 donation. It felt really generous. RIP Aaron.

This makes me incredibly sad.<p>The work I do now is made possible by Aaron's work on PACER (<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/13/us/13records.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/13/us/13records.html</a>). We are all in his debt.<p>Accordingly, I've added a memorial banner to PlainSite to ensure that everyone who uses it daily to find cases (including many in government and the DOJ specifically) will be reminded of his contribution--one of many.

Here is a thing you can do: Boycott JSTOR from now on. And refuse to publish to any journal / conference that demands $10 or more for downloading a paper that should be free (if you are not that lucky to have access to a subscription of that journal / conference).

In April 2011 i was accused of a small crime that could have given prison also. I was judged in January 2012 and accused to pay a fine of 500€ despite the accusation had no proofs. Every day i though about how to prove my innocence despite being a small accusation, it destroyed my work and mood for the whole year.<p>How to fix ? if no damage was done there is nothing to accuse of.<p>And distribution of knowledge should be free, or ransom ware the release of that info to the public should be made available upon compen$ation for the work done, ransomware maybe.<p>Aaron ideals of greater good and sharing are nobler than any politician or any other bullshitter that get media coverage and have the power to change the world for the better.

I know a lot is being speculated about how the whole JSTOR story is what could have possibly pushed Aaron over the edge. And I think the discussion is important in its own right, about easy access to academic journals. But, I think it is very important that we do get to know what it actually was that triggered this extreme act on part of Aaron. If someone as capable and intellectual as Aaron could fall prey to something that makes one end his life, what becomes of the average hacker who tries hard to achieve a level of success such as that of Aaron, and goes through phases of depression in life.<p>There has to be more to it then just the JSTOR case.

It's simply awe-inspiring how much he was able to do with his short life. Time to revisit one of my favourite talks:<p><a href="http://youtube.com/watch?v=4GwftoQElJ0" rel="nofollow">http://youtube.com/watch?v=4GwftoQElJ0</a>

Wow. Shocking news! I've been reading Aaron's stuff online and following him on twitter for years. Only last week I re-read his amazing "Raw Nerve" blog post series <a href="http://www.aaronsw.com/weblog/rawnerve" rel="nofollow">http://www.aaronsw.com/weblog/rawnerve</a><p>Lost for words!

Aaron Swartz was an excellent programmer and writer. I have bumped into his code and writings often. The raw nerve series ( <a href="http://www.aaronsw.com/weblog/rawnerve" rel="nofollow">http://www.aaronsw.com/weblog/rawnerve</a> ) have been especially influential in shaping my thinking. Above all, he was a wonderful human being: the world is a bit worse off and a sadder place without him. Rest in peace, Aaron.

Will HN's colors be going black?

Just the other day I emailed aaronsw asking about OCLC and his plans to topple it. His response wasn't very optimistic. I should have asked him a more humane question, like "sup" or "how's it hanging".<p>For whatever reason, I keep bumping into his work, whether it's through the python world or through BOSSlab, geurrilla open access, or The Sprouts. He has had a very strong impact on some very important problems in the world. I suspect that he might have seen some (perhaps twisted) value in being a martyr, especially in the face of extreme stress.. So far I prefer the living version of aaronsw.<p>I think a lot of us can see parts of each other in Aaron, both in his values and work. Another someone pointed out, just how many spiders have you written? Everyone does it, but hardly nobody talks about it. Is it really so terrible that we want to read science? or share code? And then this happens.<p>All of the criminal documents from his last court case are published on the Internet Archive. This one in particular is rather thrilling to read:<p><a href="http://ia601205.us.archive.org/25/items/UsaV.AaronSwartz-CriminalDocument53/UsaV.AaronSwartz-CriminalDocument53.pdf" rel="nofollow">http://ia601205.us.archive.org/25/items/UsaV.AaronSwartz-Cri...</a><p>"An analysis of one of the fingerprints on the Acer laptop purchased and used by the defendant cannot exclude his friend, Alec Resnick."<p>"Promises, rewards, or inducements have been given to witness Erin Quinn Norton. Copies of the letter agreement with her and order of immunity with respect to her grand jury testimony are disclosed on Disk 3."<p>"a. The computer was registered under the fictitious guest name “Gary Host.” b. The computer’s client name was specified as “ghost laptop.” A computer’s client name helps to identify it on a network and can be chosen by its user. In this case, the name was simply created by abridging the pseudonym “Gary Host,” combining the first initial “g” with the last name “host.” c. The fictitious “Gary Host’s” e-mail address was identified as “ghost@mailinator.com.” This was a “throwaway” e-mail address. Mailinator is a free, disposable e-mail service that allows a user to create a new e-mail address as needed, without even registering the address with Mailinator. Mailinator provides this service for users to have an anonymous and temporary e-mail address. Mailinator accepts mail for any e-mail address directed to the mailinator.com domain without need for a prior registration, and it allows anyone in the world to read that mail without having to create an account or enter a password. All mail sent to mailinator.com is automatically deleted after several hours whether read or not."<p>"... "The defendant has requested first that the government provide ".. any and all notes and reports provided to USSS or USAO by CERT in relation to the forensic analysis of the ACER laptop, or any analysis of any evidence including but not limited to the PCAP log information"."<p>`.. earlier posted on one of his websites, guerrillaopenaccess.com, a call-to-arms entitled "Guerrilla Open Access Manifesto" which concluded "We need to download scientific journals and upload them to file sharing networks. We need to fight for Guerrilla Open Access."`<p>Context for some of these quotes can be found here: <a href="http://gnusha.org/logs/2012-09-15.log" rel="nofollow">http://gnusha.org/logs/2012-09-15.log</a><p><a href="http://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=aaronsw" rel="nofollow">http://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=aaronsw</a>

My housemate committed suicide four years ago; his wife and I found the body. Since then my charity of choice has been AFSP: their programs and support were very important to nth of us afterwards. They do good work.<p><a href="http://www.afsp.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=home.viewPage&#38;page_id=742A2CD1-073C-16AE-C84160536A4EC34F" rel="nofollow">http://www.afsp.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=home.viewPage&#38;p...</a>

OMG, the shock of it ...<p>He was such a terrific writer, easy to see why he could code so well

Oh gosh, I am so sorry to read this.<p>I communicated with him once or twice re: rss, and I enjoyed his postings at photo net.<p>He was young, bright, witty. This is terrible.<p>I will miss you Aaron, I had such hopes for you.

That is so goddamn sad. Rest in peace, Aaron.

In this blog article, he speaks a little about his illness -<p><a href="http://www.aaronsw.com/weblog/verysick" rel="nofollow">http://www.aaronsw.com/weblog/verysick</a>

Rest in peace, Mr. Swartz.<p>As life moves as the currents in the ocean, some of us find ourselves in tropical paradises, whilst others are gifted the horrible cold of the artic. There are some who manage to hang on to another current and make headway towards warmer climates, there are some who do not. The world is now saddened to learn that you were caught up in the harsh artic cold of life. We could ask questions as to why did you not swim harder or faster, but none of us were in your place.<p>Your short life was anything but worthy of such tragic end. You decided to leave too early, too soon. Still, your presence still lives through your work, the community you helped build, and the people you touched.<p>Farewell.

As someone who has read pg's writings and watched YC grew, the reddit story is very close to my heart. I always felt I knew Aaron, Steve and Alexis well even though I never met or interacted with them. This is such a shock. RIP.

I am really upset by this. I normally feel pretty far away from news stories I read anywhere, but this feels close to home. =(

Just read the talk. I didn't realise it was given at the college I studied in. Sad to hear the news. Only today morning my daughter was saying how depressing classes are at school because every subject they study talks about how humans might become extinct. We can sometimes get too focused on problems and such times all that we need is a person to just say "It is not too bad. There are good things happening as well". Perhaps a lot of suicides are down to this missing person in our lives. We are all more connected thanks to the Internet, and also increasingly isolated.

This should be a call to action to academia. Please open your journal archives to the online community free of charge.

He made huge impact in the tech world. RIP

This is just absolutely shocking.<p>Aaron Swartz was an inspiration. To know that a person you looked up to, someone from whom you learned so much through his writings and his projects, ended up finishing his life like that...<p>Speechless!

I'm sad, really sad. I didn't know him personally and have never spoken to him. But few times when I read one of his tweets or when I visited a page of his site from a link elsewhere, I was saying to myself that it should be hard to be in his position actually, that it must put your life on hold and shut any of your plans to be stuck in such a preposterous legal situation. I as a simple citizen command you Aaron Swartz for all your inspirational work, Thank You.

I am deeply sorry to hear about this and it brings back memories of last year when a friend of mine did the same.<p>Depression is a terrible thing, and I hope we are one day able to cure it. It <i>is</i> treatable, seek help immediately if you are thinking about suicide! I hate that you cannot look upon someone and instantly know if they are depressed or not. If I could, I would drop everything to help a person I saw having trouble.<p>I hope Aaron found peace, and I wish his family the best.

Aaron was one of the genuinely good guys. May he rest in peace.

I only met Aaron once, in 2000, when he looked like this: <a href="http://www.aaronsw.com/weblog/000291" rel="nofollow">http://www.aaronsw.com/weblog/000291</a><p>I was always amazed that the wunderkind with the pizza stain on his shirt that visited us at Arsdigita University accomplished so much. He was reserved, but focused, forthright at such an early age. I couldn't help but feel he was a little disappointed in the rest of us, but he never showed it.<p>RIP, Aaron. We'll miss you.

How Google (and we) encourage suicide:<p>The first link to "suicide" search results (<a href="https://www.google.com/search?q=suicide" rel="nofollow">https://www.google.com/search?q=suicide</a>) to <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suicide" rel="nofollow">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suicide</a> which unfortunately has "Reasons" &#38; "Methods" before "Prevention" and has no mention of why you shouldn't commit suicide.<p>At the bottom of the first page of the results, the first related search is "suicide methods" <a href="http://imgur.com/7lJ02" rel="nofollow">http://imgur.com/7lJ02</a><p>Further search for "suicide methods" results in the following first three links:<p><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suicide_methods" rel="nofollow">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suicide_methods</a><p><a href="http://wantdeath.blogspot.in/2011/07/fastest-and-painless-suicide-method.html" rel="nofollow">http://wantdeath.blogspot.in/2011/07/fastest-and-painless-su...</a><p>and<p><a href="http://frater.com/suicidelist.html" rel="nofollow">http://frater.com/suicidelist.html</a><p>There is no mention of why suicide is bad and it just gives the depressed person a way to end his/her life.<p>I don't blame only Google, but I think the entire web &#38; the web community (with SEO, SEM, etc) contributes a lot for this disaster.

He was an inspiration to me. What a loss to his family and internet. Rest in peace.

For the record, a few months ago we had a back and forth about his writing process, and he was kind enough to write one of his pieces in one of those editors that keeps track of your changes so you can see the piece evolving. Very insightful.<p>At the end of that, I wrote a reply commenting on what I thought about his writing process, and never got anything back. He must have not been feeling great at that point.<p>I feel bad now.

Aaron,<p>I miss you, we never met, but you inspired me. You burned so brightly, yet so briefly.

Aaron, thank you for all you've done. It's had a tremendous impact on my life.<p>Aaron had a really interesting blog post on pain worth reading called, "Leaning into the Pain". It's worth considering that pain doesn't just impact the individual. Try to let others help. <a href="http://www.aaronsw.com/weblog/dalio" rel="nofollow">http://www.aaronsw.com/weblog/dalio</a>

This is tragic. :(<p>You were an inspiration at times. And more importantly, one among those who make people want to change for the better.

I didn't know Aaron, but I've been using web.py for years, so I kind of felt like I knew him from hanging around the online community. I really don't know what to say - he was incredibly intelligent, and made great contributions - the 'net gets a little lonelier every time we lose someone like this. :( RIP.

My condolences to everyone who knew Aaron. This is really sad.

This is sad both for me as a person, and for the internet community as a whole.<p>Aaron Swartz was the sort of person I wanted to be, his works, his personality, and what he stood for.<p>Since nothing can ever be done to reverse this, may this occurence illuminate the fact that laws are made for people, and not people for laws..

Why isn't this anywhere on reddit.com?

I find it odd that, to my knowledge at least, no one on HN has so far noted the connection between Aaron's activism against the US government re: SOPA/PIPA and his terrible treatment by them. Surely it's one of the reasons why they went after him.

Rest in peace Aaron. Someone I looked up to in more ways than words any words can explain.

OH NO!<p>Stunned &#38; heartbroken.

35 years for downloading something that is morally, and supposedly be free (funded by taxpayer money)? This is a big joke! I believe homicide cases dished out lighter sentences.<p>If access to journals, or more accurately scientific research, is to be restricted in such manner, then all government should stop funding/ providing grants for scientific researches, at least not from taxpayers money. These interested parties, namely the journals publishers, should come out with such funds as eventually they are making money from such works. It's ridiculous for the public to fund their business.<p>RIP Aaron Swartz.... you have make yourself heard, loud and clear, to the civil society.

This has hit me hard. So much potential, and gone so young. So sad. Rest in peace Aaron.

If anybody is partial to listening to music during times like these, I recommend Tchaikovsky's Symphony no. 6 [1]. The fourth movement in particular is extraordinarily moving and an ice cold glimpse of disdain, depression, and ultimately the death (some say suicide) of a romantic genius [2]. Of course the entire work is something to behold in all its movements.<p>1) <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Symphony_No._6_(Tchaikovsky)" rel="nofollow">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Symphony_No._6_(Tchaikovsky)</a> 2) <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DtLq8wj0p80" rel="nofollow">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DtLq8wj0p80</a>

Sad. Terrible news.<p>I was just reading 5ish year old comments on reddit about him and suicide <a href="http://www.reddit.com/r/reddit.com/comments/1octb/reddit_cofounder_aaron_swartz_discusses_how_he/c1oe1d" rel="nofollow">http://www.reddit.com/r/reddit.com/comments/1octb/reddit_cof...</a> which lead my to this blog post of his describing a suicide <a href="http://www.aaronsw.com/weblog/dying" rel="nofollow">http://www.aaronsw.com/weblog/dying</a><p>I lost a friend to suicide. It is and was the worst thing ever. I still miss him dearly about 1.5 years on. Breaks my heart. My love and condolences to his friends and family.

It's a sad, sad world we live in. RIP Aaron.

RIP

I'm so sorry to hear this. My heart goes out to the Swartz family. No matter anyone's contributions, this gets the volume turned down on everything else turned down.<p>The only thing we have on this earth is time.

When think about it, what PG's close friend and buddy Robert Tappan Morris did with bringing down a vast number of computer on the internet back then; was incomparably and inexorably worse.<p>Yet, Robert Morris has had a great life, both as an acclaimed professor at the greatest technological institution that has ever existed (MIT), and of course as a key member of Y Combinator.<p>Yet a petty non-criminal like Aaron is put through something infinitely worse than the "punishment" of community service that was dished out of RTM.<p>Ha. Some justice system indeed!

In his young life Aaron demonstrated that he wanted the world to have knowledge, ethics and community. I think the best way we can honor his legacy is to carry those things forward as best we can.<p>RIP Aaron

Shit! one of the most brilliant minds of all time, his series raw nerve <a href="http://www.aaronsw.com/weblog/rawnerve" rel="nofollow">http://www.aaronsw.com/weblog/rawnerve</a> has inspired hundreds of people including me to overcome life pain and depression. how could he just do that ?<p>Aaron, you should have not done that .. I'm sure thousands of people of this community would have fought for you to get you out of your problems .. your contributions will always be remembered .. it's just so sad ..

I can't stop reading his writings. He was a talented writer, amongst other things. I really feel the connection even though I never met him.<p>My condolences to his family and the entire community. :(

I was very saddened to hear this news. I posted my thoughts to my blog. <a href="http://benatkin.com/2013/01/12/rip-aaron-swartz/" rel="nofollow">http://benatkin.com/2013/01/12/rip-aaron-swartz/</a> He accomplished a lot, and taught us a lot, and I think most of us can still learn from him. <a href="http://www.aaronsw.com/weblog/archive" rel="nofollow">http://www.aaronsw.com/weblog/archive</a>

True shame. Regardless of your opinion of his actions concerning JSTOR, it's undeniable he made a positive contribution to the web.

R.I.P Aaron. You're get followed now and forever for all the good things you've done. We'll continue fighting for a better world.

This is awful news.<p>I haven't been in touch with Aaron for several years, but I had a brief encounter with him in 2008. I was between jobs and decided to help out with his watchdog.net project of the time. He was always incredibly kinda and once tracked down my number and called to check that I was OK after I was unexpectedly offline for a several days.<p>Great guy; will be missed.

Basically: if you feel strongly about JSTOR and it's ilk do the following in order of preference<p>1. Publish in an open access journal 2. Publish in a regular journal and make YOUR version available in <a href="http://arxiv.org/" rel="nofollow">http://arxiv.org/</a> or your website<p>It will get you more citations and you will do your part in disseminating science

RIP Aaron...

Terrible terrible news. What troubles me the most is that this could happen to any one of us. RIP Aaron.

This is extremely tragic. The world is a horrible place when some of its best people loose all hope and choose to leave it early. It is quite crazy that that downloading scientific papers can incur sentences longer than the maximum for crimes such as rape, manslaughter, etc.

Fuck :(

Is there a proof that it's a suicide? He dies yesterday, and annouced as `suicide` immediately?

Regardless of everything happening in his life, it's terrible in any instance when someone is pushed to the point where they rationalize taking their own life. Best wishes and thoughts to Aarons family and friends as they mourn during this horrible time.

I find Aaron's responses on his own Wikipedia talk page quite a fascinating insight to his personality and humility. <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Aaron_Swartz" rel="nofollow">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Aaron_Swartz</a>

Goddamnit, this is just horrible. My sympathies to Aaron's friends and families. I always found his work and his writings interesting and sometimes even inspiring. Our society would have benefitted from an extra 60 years of this guy.

Does anyone have a copy of the source to theinfo.org or any of this previous versions? I have a complete archive of the mailing lists. I'd like to make sure it doesn't disappear, it and other things Aaron did inspired things I made.

Spez, from Reddit, says he isn't a cofounder:<p><a href="http://www.reddit.com/r/todayilearned/comments/d2njs/til_there_was_a_third_cofounder_of_reddit_who_was/c0x40yz" rel="nofollow">http://www.reddit.com/r/todayilearned/comments/d2njs/til_the...</a>

RIP Aaron. You will be missed.

What a terrible loss. Aaron had many fruitful years ahead of him. He left us far too early. My condolences to his family and loved ones. I hope at least this compels others who have depression to seek help for themselves.

RIP Aaron. You were awesome.

Very sad, and very unexpected. He had so many interesting things going on.

R.I.P. Aaron! We miss you!

So sad to lose someone that's made such a dent on the world so young.

<a href="http://qblog.aaronsw.com/post/38405145996/part-of-the-player-character-code-is-that-you" rel="nofollow">http://qblog.aaronsw.com/post/38405145996/part-of-the-player...</a>

Man. What a shame. We lost a seriously talented and creative guy.

Somehow, a part of me hopes that he will have a few scheduled blog posts that get posted on his weblog in the future, hopefully revealing more things we didn't know about.<p>RIP Aaron Swartz.

Can pg or someone with the access please put the black bar on?

I am very saddened by this young man's taking of his life and the apparent reckless pursuit by the Government to prosecute him for a seemingly minor "crime."

And all over Reddit the posts to the news get removed. :-(

This is probably the first time a HN story has got so much traction in such little time. This explains how much people will miss Aaron. RIP bro.

Wow, this is terribly, terribly sad news. :-(<p>Wish there was more that could be said, but I guess the only appropriate thing is:<p>R.I.P. aaronsw, you will be missed.

So he could have gone to jail for hacking into the MIT machines/library. Machines where they knew had already gained access to.

I hope that you have found peace and a better place Aaron. It was too soon to lose you, we need the brave ones.

Suicide is almost never a solution. It's a real shame this couldn't be prevented in due time. Rest in peace!

Thank you for your activism. RIP Aaron.

We are all Aaron Swartz. Let's not let our generation down. Stick together people.

OH my goodness this is terrible, my condolences to his friends and family.

RIP

RIP Aaron.

I wonder if the DOJ will charge Google with scraping the whole Internet.

This kid had it all, fame, fortune, brains.<p>So what we wrong? Why was he so unhappy?

It's all over HN but Reddit's front page is still memes and cats.

May he rest in peace and his legacy be remembered. That's all.

I was hoping to hear from PG on this .... :( nothing yet

I'm very sad. A piece of my hope is gone.

Its sad that this is important and at the top of HN, yet Reddit is still full of cat pictures on the front page.

RIP Aaron.

...<p>Thank you Aaron. RIP

Can anyone find details about how he suicided? He might be faking is own death..

wow. so sad.

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I have no words. I've been sitting with my phone's cursor blinking in this box and, for the first time in a long time, my stomach has turned so much from this news that I have nothing to write.<p>What an absolutely dreadful shame. My heart is wrenched for his family and all of us, who lost a brilliant young man. I'm a month older than he was, and to imagine someone <i>my age</i> thinking there was no way out... with all of the possibilities of his life, a life just beginning.<p>Christ.

RIP. So sad.<p>Like many others here, may path also crossed his several times as I kept bumping into his work. He had a ton of really cool side projects. I pinged him a few times about some of them and he was always really gracious and helpful in his responses. I didn't find out his stature in the community (reddit cofounder etc) until recently and was shocked he had taken the time to reply to me.<p>As for the reason he did this now: I'm sure it was a combination of things that had built up over many years, however in a criminal case like this, now would be the time his lawyer would be attempting to work out a plea bargain with the prosecutors. If they were demanding a long prison sentence and multiple felony convictions, and the evidence against him was very strong (as it sounds like it was) many people would probably contemplate suicide.

My heart goes out to his family. I'm a big fan of his work, particularly web.py. He made a huge impact on the web by anyone's standards and his contributions have personally touched my life in many ways. Rest in peace, man.

At 24, he was just a kid. I can't even imagine the amount of stress in his life. Who are we to question or speculate on why he did what he wanted to do. I'm glad he contributed what he did in this world. I'm glad we had 24 years. He decided we weren't getting any more. I never feel sad for suicide. You can't tell people you want to do it or they will have your freedom taken away.<p>Sorry for bad grammar... small comment boxes make me feel pressured to get out everything in a few lines quickly.

I admired him quite a bit after the JSTOR thing.

What can we do to help carry forward, and continue Aaron's work?

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