Comment by cedws
9 days ago
The Aaron Swartz case is a tragedy, but I think this is kind of understating it. He broke into a private network and tried to cover his tracks which is hard to argue isn’t a cyber crime. I don’t think he deserved anywhere near 35 years though.
I think hacker types easily get carried away and forget the optics of what they’re doing. I consider myself lucky the computer mischief I got up to when I was younger never landed me in big trouble. All Swartz needed was a stern reminder, and light sentence to redirect his skills.
Did you see what Anna's Archive did with Spotify? Seeding their torrents isn't exactly "breaking into a private network", but it is definitely at least showing support for the same kind of large scale data theft / DRM breaking. Which might put a target on your back, should the US govt want to make an example out of you.
> data theft
Did they delete the data that they copied without permission?
No need to be snarky, I know there's a difference of opinions about ownership when it comes to data. That's why I also wrote "DRM breaking" as an alternative term.
Would you say "hackers broke into the NHS and copied patient data without permission" or would you simply say they "stole" it?
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