MIT Society for Open Science

We the undersigned ask that MIT issue an apology for its silence regarding the unjust federal prosecution against Aaron Swartz for actions that caused little or no harm to MIT or any individuals. Faced with a maximum fine of $1 million and over 35 years in prison if convicted of 13 felony counts related to the downloading of academic journal articles on MIT’s internet network [1], Aaron committed suicide on January 11, 2013.

We believe that MIT should have issued a statement criticizing the excessively harsh charges against Aaron in light of the following facts:

1.  Aaron’s use of MIT’s open network to gain access to JSTOR articles through MIT’s journal subscription was legal. At worst, his use of a computer script to automate downloading of 4.8 million articles violated JSTOR’s terms of use, for which he was not charged [2].

2. Aaron never distributed any of these articles to the public. In fact, he returned all copies of the downloads and promised not to share them once he was arrested [3].

3. JSTOR stated that it had no interest in pursuing civil litigation against Aaron [4] and asked for the criminal litigation to be dropped.

Aaron was a social activist, supporter of open access to knowledge, and friend to many in the MIT community. We are saddened to learn of his death and supportive of his family and partner’s criticism of MIT’s inaction against “a criminal justice system rife with intimidation and prosecutorial overreach” [5].

[1] http://www.justice.gov/usao/ma/news/2011/July/SwartzAaronPR.html
[2] http://unhandled.com/2013/01/12/the-truth-about-aaron-swartzs-crime/
[3] http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/jan/12/aaron-swartz-heroism-suicide1
[4] http://about.jstor.org/news/jstor-statement-misuse-incident-and-criminal-case
[5] http://talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/2013/01/official_statement.php

[Edit: A couple people have pointed out that President Reif has issued a letter announcing the start of an internal investigation into MIT's involvement with Aaron's case, which we appreciate. We do not ask for an apology before the internal investigation is over, but we do wish to communicate our opinion that anything less than an apology as a result of the investigation is unacceptable in light of the facts stated above.]

[Disclaimer: This author of this post does not claim to represent the views of the MIT Society for Open Science as a group.]

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