Article needs tag âchrist what a bunch of assholesâ at the very least. MIT, this is unacceptable. You just threw your integrity away. If I was an MIT student I would feel deep shame and, if I was somehow still there, give my options at other schools some serious consideration.
Fucking horrible, way to collude with oppression, MIT.
The report seemed quite thorough and even-handed to me, but I donât have a blog dedicated to projecting Swartzâs suicide on others, as does TarenSK (Although I research at MIT, so bias is bias). Nevertheless there are some critical facts in the MIT report that I havenât seen mentioned. First, MIT didnât âcall the Fedsâ, they asked Cambridge Police to help investigate a series of mysterious, camouflaged laptops plugged into their network and an anonymous character sneaking about the network closets at MIT guarding his face from the security cameras. Nothing unreasonable there. Second, it didnât request prosecution and told the prosecutor that it was seeking no punishment.
The report is quite clear, and I recommend people actually read it.
Iâm going to take the time to read the report tonight, but I donât need to do so before bristling at the accusation that itâs a âwhitewash.â I know Hal Abelson. Whitewash is not Abelsonâs stock in trade.
Honestly , BoingBoing would have considered it a white wash unless it explicitly found MIT directly at fault. They would not accept any report here from anyone that said different. Itâs kind of the bias.
I think it would be more useful to discuss the substantive issues, rather than accusing Boing Boing of bias. Iâve known Abelson for as long as Iâve known Aaron, and I was surprised by this report.
The substantive issue raised by TSK and Lessig is that the report characterizes MIT as âneutralâ in its approach to the parties in the suit. But MIT supplied â at its discretion, without any legal compulsion â useful documents to the prosecution, and denied those documents to the defense, who had asked for them and needed them to keep Aaron out of jail.
That fact â not in dispute â makes the claim of neutrality hard to credit.
Add to this the also undisputed fact that MIT intervened in the effort to see Aaronâs Secret Service file:
Something quite without precedent, and MIT emerges as even more partisan. As Ed Felten pointed out:
https://freedom-to-tinker.com/blog/felten/mit-asks-to-intervene-in-swartz-foia-suit/
the claim that MIT wanted to ensure the documents were appropriately redacted is absurd on its face (the Secret Service is the among the most aggressive redacters in the FOIA league-tables). Itâs much more likely that they wanted to get out in front of the negative publicity the documents will generate based on MITâs participation in Aaronâs prosecution.
I did not accuse Boingboing of bias, nor would I, since you did put âwhitewashâ in quotes. Nor do I need to accuse Lessig or Taner of bias. They were both left bereaved by Aaronâs death. Their bias is a given.
Regarding MITâs neutrality, there are two separate issues. Supplying the evidence, and supporting the prosecutionâs decision to embody the spirit of Javert. I hope itâs clear now that MIT is not to blame for the latter. As to the former, when did it become possible for documents supplied to a prosecutor to not be supplied to the defense? (Honest question. Iâm still reading through the report.)
The documents were voluntarily supplied.
The prosecution in Aaronâs case could, theoretically, have been compelled to hand over the documents in discovery. But the prosecutors played very dirty, and forced Aaron to pay to litigate every question of discovery over and over, trying to run out his funds so heâd have to take a plea.
Lessig also points out that though MIT did not believe Aaronâs access was âunauthorizedâ (the issue on which the prosecutionâs case turned), they never mentioned this to the prosecution. Had they done so, the case would have ended.
The most likely reason for MIT to object to the FOIA release is that the person(/s) on the university staff who took the position to prosecute is both a) politically connected enough to get the university to try to shut it down and b) they are actually scared for their reputation/life/livelihood based on the repercussions of being the responsible party. They donât deserve identity protection, in my opinion, and if they are afraid of reputation damage and/or threats of retaliation, they are absolutely suffering a very similar fear to that which they inflicted due to their direct action. Isnât that closer to âjusticeâ than anything a court could provide? Please understand that I am neither suggesting nor condoning violence or direct threats, merely acknowledging their existence.
Best to take down the entire institution for their own sake, then. Real fine thinking there, MIT. Youâre looking as bright as a copper kettle at the bottom of the sea right now.
Reading the actual report, itâs hard to see it as a âwhitewash.â MIT didnât ask the report authors to make recommendations or place blame, so they donât.
The report does give a lot of space to the actions of Aaron Swartzâs father, and the MIT administrators who displayed indifference to Swartzâs plight.
Aaron Swartzâs father noted that, in his discussions with some MIT
administrators, he was asked if his son was a member of the MIT
community. When he explained that his son was not a student or staff
member, he felt that these administrators assured themselves that MIT
had no responsibilities to Aaron and gave no consideration to the
idea that Aaron was part of MITâs larger community of scholars and
scientists.
The report authors did go beyond their charge and concluded with a series of questions for MIT as an institution and a community:
Should MIT develop a formal recognition of âguests,â contributors,
and other participants in the academic life of MIT? Should such
possible recognition be captured in policy, or should it be left to
informal channels and community awareness? While differences will
always exist, there remains a basic issue of how MIT should think
about responses to members of a wider communityâas the underlying
mindset will affect actions, whether it is codified or not.
Lessig got just one thing wrong - he called the Swartz case a tragedy.
Tragedy is when something bad happens, beyond anybodyâs ability to control, or when we being about our own downfall. Tragedy is when we can blame the gods, or fate, or geology for our misfortune.
But when men of ill will harass somebody to the point of suicide, thatâs not tragedy. Itâs atrocity. Thereâs criminal negligence in this case as well, but I donât see any tragedy at all. Tragedy does not demand justice, but Aaron Swartz does.
Where is the photo? Iâm intrigued by the pichação graffitiâŚ
A little Googling suggests that itâs next to: 57 Nassau Ave, New York, NY â
alipkin has it right . . . although Iâd say itâs in Brooklyn, NY. Just to the north of McCarren Park, on the border between Williamsburg and Greenpoint.
Thanks for learning me the new word! Hereâs a closeup, from the roof (not by me, I think by the artist): http://www.flickr.com/photos/bamnx/8400566767/
Ninja-like Googling!
Iâm often amused by the outcomes of whatever privacy-preserving methods Google uses in their street view photos. In that one, the painted likenesses of Swartz and Manning are blurred, as is the name of the McCare deli, but the faces of pedestrians are un-blurred, as is the name of SyndicatoâŚ
Nobody commits an irrational act like suicide âfor reasonsâ. I know many people think that Swartz was unfairly treated (myself included), but the exact same reasons that psychologists and psychiatrists tell friends and family of people that committed suicide that they shouldnât blame themselves makes the âMIT made Swartz kill himselfâ argument invalid.
âHaving thoroughly investigated ourselves, we have come to the conclusion that we did nothing wrong.â
You have a point, but that does nothing to excuse their behavior.
