Aaron Swartz died while being prosecuted - by the FBI - for the reckless crime of demanding JSTOR provide the public free access to public data. Why was he prosecuted? JSTOR is immersed in the CopyRight camp, which is in the Rentier camp, which is in the camp obsessed with hoarding liquidity ... all parts of the camp that don't understand currency operations, nor social liquidity, nor cultural operations.
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Experts puzzled over the arrest and argued that the result of the actions Mr Swartz was accused of was the same as his PACER program: more information publicly available.
The prosecution "makes no sense," Demand Progress Executive Director David Segal said at the time. "It's like trying to put someone in jail for allegedly checking too many books out of the library."
Mr Swartz faced 13 felony charges, including breaching site terms and intending to share downloaded files through peer-to-peer networks, computer fraud, wire fraud, obtaining information from a protected computer, and criminal forfeiture.
JSTOR announced this week that it would make more than 4.5 million articles publicly available for free.
Mr Swartz's funeral is scheduled for Tuesday in Highland Park, Illinois
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Does JSTOR's belated response to the Aaron Swartz debacle constitute a Fast Transient? Or just another response that's a day late and another life short?
Pity it had to come to this.
FBI staff, DoJ staff, university faculty and Congresspeople, like those in all other bureaucracies, periodically find themselves ignoring what's right, when keeping their job depends on them assisting wrong.
Experiences similar to this - what the FBI/DoJ/Congress and their lobbies just did - will happen to everyone, at least once in their life. Success tracks our tempo in minimizing the net frequency and impact of such events in our culture. If not, then we lose trust in our institutions, our government, our nation, and ourselves. At that point we fail, become less American, and become more like Russian or other failed, totalitarian cultures.
When YOUR institution's momentum is in the wrong, then it's better for your country if you help change your institution's momentum - the sooner the better. If you can't, then consider joining the opposition!
Adaptive Rate tracks the appearance of Fast Transients (catalysts) that lower the barriers to early detection, early analysis and early intervention.
We have to do what's right because, in the end, what's wrong can't scale, even when "everyone is doing it."
