Aaron Swartz
| Aaron Swartz | |
|---|---|
Swartz at a Creative Commons event on December 13, 2008
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| Born |
Aaron H. Swartz November 8, 1986 Highland Park, Illinois, U.S. |
| Died | January 11, 2013 (aged 26) Brooklyn, New York City |
| Cause of death | Suicide |
| Alma mater | Stanford University |
| Occupation | Software developer, writer, Internet activist |
| Title | Fellow, Harvard University Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics |
| Awards | American Library Association's James Madison Award (posthumously) EFF Pioneer Award 2013 (posthumously) Internet Hall of Fame 2013 (posthumously) |
| Website | aaronsw.com |
 IHoF Induction Ceremony – Aaron Swartz on YouTube
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Aaron Hillel Swartz (November 8, 1986 – January 11, 2013) was an American computer programmer, entrepreneur, writer, political organizer, and Internet hacktivist. He was involved in the development of the web feed format RSS and the Markdown publishing format, the organization Creative Commons, the website framework web.py, and the social news site Reddit, in which he became a partner after its merger with his company, Infogami.
Swartz's work also focused on civic awareness and activism. He helped launch the Progressive Change Campaign Committee in 2009 to learn more about effective online activism. In 2010, he became a research fellow at Harvard University's Safra Research Lab on Institutional Corruption, directed by Lawrence Lessig. He founded the online group Demand Progress, known for its campaign against the Stop Online Piracy Act.
On January 6, 2011, Swartz was arrested by MIT police on state breaking-and-entering charges, after connecting a computer to the MIT network in an unmarked and unlocked closet, and setting it to download academic journal articles systematically from JSTOR using a guest user account issued to him by MIT. Federal prosecutors later charged him with two counts of wire fraud and eleven violations of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, carrying a cumulative maximum penalty of $1 million in fines, 35 years in prison, asset forfeiture, restitution, and supervised release.
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