I agree the media does exaggerate potential prison terms, but the feds actually raised it to 13 felony counts.
Feds Charge Activist with 13 Felonies for Rogue Downloading of Academic Articles | Threat Level | Wired.com
Aaron Swartz ( Cofounder of Reddit) commits suicide
- Thread starter Zsaleem
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I agree the media does exaggerate potential prison terms, but the feds actually raised it to 13 felony counts.
Feds Charge Activist with 13 Felonies for Rogue Downloading of Academic Articles | Threat Level | Wired.com
That's insane. Anyone can pussy out because life is tough, throw up their hands, and check out.
The ballsy ones are those who realize life sucks at times and still soldier on.
This kid was facing jail time, so that's an added element. But overall, it sounds like he knew what he was getting into.
Are you me? I get those thoughts and I also turn 26 in a few months.
Judging by what Jon and dantex wrote he was a good guy, RIP
suicide is act of beein scared.
but it has 2 ways. people so scared they do it without thinking and people scared and thinking bright doing this planned. and yes it takes balls to commit suicide planned, but theres more balls to understand the same and not do it.
but it has 2 ways. people so scared they do it without thinking and people scared and thinking bright doing this planned. and yes it takes balls to commit suicide planned, but theres more balls to understand the same and not do it.
A Felony conviction is conviction of anything with a penalty over 12 months. To think you are getting away with less given what they were throwing at him then you have a bad lawyer.
With that said the #1 rule in many Fed cases is to make and take a deal. If they take you to trial you have little chance of winning and the sentence will be much much longer.
With that said, if you know anyone facing Fed time and they are likely to be placed in a Minimum security "camp", then it's important to get them to talk to someone that has been there before. That way they will understand they are not going to be raped, bullied, or screwed with. While this does not lessen the impact of the entire situation, it can reduce the fear and apprehension of what they are going to face and hopefully mitigate some fear.
I know it's not an "end all" to making things better, but it may be the tipping point in helping people find some will to survive.
I want confirm that when Jon mentioned the army amassed against you in this circumstance and what they bring to the battle. He's not exaggerating.
I didn't know the guy, but it's always a tragedy when someone so young, talented and by all accounts decent feels the need to take their life. RIP.
Inevitably, various fuckwits with no understanding of what depression is will chime in about how much braver they are than the person that has just passed, for carrying on with their lives of mediocrity. How about having a sense of decency and leaving it out of this thread?
Inevitably, various fuckwits with no understanding of what depression is will chime in about how much braver they are than the person that has just passed, for carrying on with their lives of mediocrity. How about having a sense of decency and leaving it out of this thread?
He knew he was under criminal investigation by the feds well before the indictment. Every day before the indictment you're wondering if the hammer will drop. This creates daily mental trauma. This type of trauma could easily send someone over the edge.
Trust me, you know you're under criminal investigation well before the indictment.
This is such a tragedy. I am very sad for the family and the loss of such a brilliant young man.
Worth a read. Read it all except the Dalio pdf which I am part way through and plan to print and re-read later. If you could sit down with Dalio and just listen, you would. This is the next best thing. Agree or disagree with Dalio, but reading what he wrote is time well spent.
http://www.bwater.com/Uploads/FileManager/Principles/Bridgewater-Associates-Ray-Dalio-Principles.pdf
I have been reading up Aaron Swartz's pending case also. Seems to be another example of a prosecutor simply taking a case that could have been left alone with the consequences being a ruined life and for what?
It also does not help that he had a history of making his own rules in Downloading PACER. He got away with that, but decided to do something similar again, likely why the Prosecutor did not let go of this more recent case.
Personally I think court records like those should not be open access just so someone can make a mugshot type website, but apparently Swartz did not. Though Swartz was fighting for free access to public information, the way it is used in many cases argues for restriction.
Not always the case, although when they make their presence known it's usually when the nail is in the coffin on your case.
They really need to repeal those federal sentencing guidelines. I suggest if you're going to get involved in any type of criminal activity take a good look at the time your facing when it comes to federal crimes. You will be shocked at some of the sentences you can and will face. And I'm pretty sure they have something like a 90%+ conviction rate -- which is probably due to most people taking plea deals with reduced sentences instead of taking it to trial, spending 100's of thousands of dollars in attorney fees and getting a 30 year bid.
Lessig Blog, v2
That's a pretty good read from his friend / lawyers perspective.
EDIT:
Not that this petition shit works, but if you want to sign some here you go.
https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/pe...z-office-overreach-case-aaron-swartz/RQNrG1Ck
https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/pe...gov&utm_medium=shorturl&utm_campaign=shorturl
That's a pretty good read from his friend / lawyers perspective.
EDIT:
Not that this petition shit works, but if you want to sign some here you go.
https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/pe...z-office-overreach-case-aaron-swartz/RQNrG1Ck
https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/pe...gov&utm_medium=shorturl&utm_campaign=shorturl
A good friend of mine (also aged 26), whom I'd known since we were 11 years old, killed himself a few months ago. Attending his funeral was an horrendous experience and I couldn't understand why someone would do that especially as my friend was utterly fucking fearless.
I'd ridden mountain bikes and gone snowboarding with him for years, so I can say with certainty he had balls the size of watermelons- he'd do stuff without thinking that made me slightly-nauseous just watching. To say that him killing himself was a surprise is therefore a massive fucking understatement.
Then I read this, and it made a bit more sense:
"“The so-called ‘psychotically depressed’ person who tries to kill herself doesn’t do so out of quote ‘hopelessness’ or any abstract conviction that life’s assets and debits do not square. And surely not because death seems suddenly appealing. The person in whom Its invisible agony reaches a certain unendurable level will kill herself the same way a trapped person will eventually jump from the window of a burning high-rise. Make no mistake about people who leap from burning windows. Their terror of falling from a great height is still just as great as it would be for you or me standing speculatively at the same window just checking out the view; i.e. the fear of falling remains a constant. The variable here is the other terror, the fire’s flames: when the flames get close enough, falling to death becomes the slightly less terrible of two terrors. It’s not desiring the fall; it’s terror of the flames. And yet nobody down on the sidewalk, looking up and yelling ‘Don’t!’ and ‘Hang on!’, can understand the jump. Not really. You’d have to have personally been trapped and felt flames to really understand a terror way beyond falling.” ― David Foster Wallace
Whatever it was that possessed my friend, and Aaron Swartz, be glad it hasn't affected you. It certainly isn't the action of a coward.
I'd ridden mountain bikes and gone snowboarding with him for years, so I can say with certainty he had balls the size of watermelons- he'd do stuff without thinking that made me slightly-nauseous just watching. To say that him killing himself was a surprise is therefore a massive fucking understatement.
Then I read this, and it made a bit more sense:
"“The so-called ‘psychotically depressed’ person who tries to kill herself doesn’t do so out of quote ‘hopelessness’ or any abstract conviction that life’s assets and debits do not square. And surely not because death seems suddenly appealing. The person in whom Its invisible agony reaches a certain unendurable level will kill herself the same way a trapped person will eventually jump from the window of a burning high-rise. Make no mistake about people who leap from burning windows. Their terror of falling from a great height is still just as great as it would be for you or me standing speculatively at the same window just checking out the view; i.e. the fear of falling remains a constant. The variable here is the other terror, the fire’s flames: when the flames get close enough, falling to death becomes the slightly less terrible of two terrors. It’s not desiring the fall; it’s terror of the flames. And yet nobody down on the sidewalk, looking up and yelling ‘Don’t!’ and ‘Hang on!’, can understand the jump. Not really. You’d have to have personally been trapped and felt flames to really understand a terror way beyond falling.” ― David Foster Wallace
Whatever it was that possessed my friend, and Aaron Swartz, be glad it hasn't affected you. It certainly isn't the action of a coward.
