Aaron Swartz: Was the DOJ Prosecution Political or Something More?

by Nomad

In what might seem as "stating the obvious" Huffington Post has an article about the prosecution / persecution by the Justice Department of Aaron Swartz. 

In a past post, we looked at the case in which Swartz, who committed suicide in January, had been indicted and faced prison time for downloading millions of academic articles from an online archive. 

According to the article:

A Justice Department representative told congressional staffers during a recent briefing on the computer fraud prosecution of Internet activist Aaron Swartz that Swartz’s “Guerilla Open Access Manifesto” played a role in the prosecution.

The manifesto said sharing information was a “moral imperative” and advocated for “civil disobedience” against copyright laws pushed by corporations “blinded by greed” that led to the “privatization of knowledge.”

“We need to take information, wherever it is stored, make our copies and share them with the world,” Swartz wrote in the manifesto.

Corporate Goliath sues Hacker David: Sony v. George Hotz

by Nomad

On January 11, 2011, Sony Computer Entertainment America LLC (SCEA) initiated a legal action against 21-year-old George Hotz, (alias geohot, million75 or simply mil), and others from an online hacker group called fail0verflow. It is already shaping up to be an interesting battle and a quite possibly a made-for-Hollywood script played out in real-life.

The Players

While Sony Corporation itself needs little introduction, Sony Computer Entertainment America Inc., a subsidiary, develops and markets video games consoles in the United States and Canada. The company was founded in 1994 and is based in Foster City, California.

Certainly, as corporate Goliaths go, SCEA can flex some intimidating legal muscles. In court- and everywhere else- it generally gets what it wants.

Playing the David in this story is George Hotz. For his part, Hotz has had his own share of achievements and fame.