[PLUG] Creator of RSS passes away

[yati sagade]

Committing suicide is definitely not a solution no matter how hard a time
you're having. The sad part is that people who should have helped Aaron
legally while he was alive are now making him a martyr, which he is not.
Don't get me wrong, I have the highest regards for Aaron and for his work
and I personally believe in openness of knowledge but I really do not think
his committing suicide makes him a martyr people should pay tribute to.
That said, he definitely did not deserve to be treated the way he was
treated by the authorities who clearly were out to set an example. There's
one Julian Assange who is wanted by the US for uncovering their(and others)
dirty secrets and he will be arrested as soon as he steps outside the
Ecuadorian Embassy he's taken shelter in now. Did he(and the countless
brave hearts associated with WikiLeaks) go inside hidden but open doors?
Yes. Is that strictly legal? No. Did his actions cause a net positive
impact on the world? Yes.

Aaron, too, made a strong point by trying to liberate knowledge he believed
is deserved by all and I personally support his notion about the freedom of
knowledge. Imagine what would have happened if Newton, Einstein, Planck,
Gauss, Claude Shannon and the likes had locked down their work from all but
those who could pay (the then equivalent of) $31 - 38 *per article*? The
researchers should definitely get paid for their work, but the amount
IEEE/Springer/JSTOR are demanding is absurd. The solution many "luminary"
researchers will give is "Why don't you join IEEE/Springer/JSTOR?". Well,
the subscription charges are also absurdly high and they try to put some
kind of restrictions on the number of articles you can access.

-- 
Yati Sagade

Software Engineer at mquotient <http://www.mquotient.net/>
<http://twitter.com/yati_itay>

Twitter: @yati_itay <http://twitter.com/yati_itay> | Github:
yati-sagade<https://github.com/yati-sagade>

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