[PLUG] Creator of RSS passes away

[Amarendra Godbole]

On Fri, Jan 18, 2013 at 8:45 AM, Praveen A <pravi.a at gmail.com> wrote:
> 2013/1/18 ag at gmail <amarendra.godbole at gmail.com>:
>> So do I read it something like this: While walking on the street, I found an unlocked door to a bar and walked in, grabbed a bottle of vodka, gulped it down, and walked out. I was caught, since I was 17.
>>
>> Now blame the bar for having its door unlocked or the person who forgot the bottle of vodka on the table. Don't every utter anything about underage drinking... (though it is illegal). Not exact, but you get the idea.
>
> The point is, MIT kept the network open as well thought out policy. It
> is MIT culture not to restrict their network. Do you not see the
> proportion as an issue? Agreed, it is rude on Aaron's part to have
> misused the access, but does it deserve 35 years in jail? Also
> remember JSTOR did not want to prosecute Aaron.
>
>> If JSTOR should be free - one should put efforts to gather those many articles on their own. Why steal? Another thing - part of JSTOR fees goes towards paying the authors of those articles, from what I read. By wanting it for free, you also deny rightful money to the very people who put their ideas on paper. I consider this abuse of the term Free... Gandhi did not take away salt from the British, it was rightfully given to those who owned it. In this case, the papers were not rightfully Aaron's or of public...
>
> Copying is not stealing and Aaron did not distribute the articles he
> copied. The people who wrote the papers are already paid.
>
> "Another thing to consider is that academic writers are paid through
> salaries and grants; they aren't paid (not directly, anyway) for the
> publication of their work. The whole system of compensation for
> academic content is very different from commercial publishing. When
> you pay for a JSTOR article online, none of the money goes to the
> author, it goes to the publisher."
>
> http://www.theawl.com/2011/08/was-aaron-swartz-stealing
>
>> We don't need more Aarons, for sure.
>>
>> YMMV.
>
> Yes, I believe we need more Aarons and that is why I'm talking about
> his work with as many people as possible.
>
> From the same article,
>
> "Swartz is being charged with hacker crimes, not
> copyright-infringement crimes, because he didn't actually distribute
> any documents, plus JSTOR didn't even want him prosecuted. These
[...]

I have read all articles about him, and still maintain my belief -
Robin Hoods like him do more harm than good. Probably Free Software
needs folks like him, not Open Source. ;-)

-ag