Fotograf Magazine

On January 6, 2011, the computer programmer and Internet activist Aaron Swartz was arrested after using the MIT network to secretly download a large number of scientific research papers from the JSTOR database. As a result, in July of that year federal charges were brought against Swartz in the United States, indicting him for a number of serious crimes. He was facing possibly decades in prison and a million-dollar fine. On January 11, 2013, Swartz’s partner found him hanged in their New York apartment. Twenty-six at the time of his death, Aaron Swartz was known as an accomplished programmer and activist.¹