Darrell E. Issa, California
Chairman
Elijah E. Cummings, Maryland
Ranking Minority Member
ONE HUNDRED THIRTEENTH CONGRESS
Congress of the United States
House of Representatives
COMMITTEE ON OVERSIGHT AND GOVERNMENT REFORM
2157 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515-6143
Majority (202) 225-5074
Minority (202) 225-5051
January 28, 2013
The Honorable Eric H. Holder, Jr.
Attorney General
U.S. Department of Justice
950 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, D.C. 20530
Dear Mr. Attorney General:
We are writing to request a briefing about the decisions by federal prosecutors to bring criminal charges in 2011 and 2012 against Internet activist Aaron Swartz, 26, who was found dead in his apartment from an apparent suicide on January 11, 2013.
In 2010, Mr. Swartz founded Demand Progress, an effort to rally the online community against two Internet-related censorship bills, the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and its companion Protect IP Act (PIPA). He was a firm believer in using the Internet to provide open access to the world’s knowledge, and he campaigned fervently against SOPA/PIPA.[1]
According to a federal indictment, police at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) arrested Mr. Swartz in 2011 for allegedly using computers at MIT to gain illegal access to millions of scholarly papers kept by JSTOR, a subscription-only service for distributing scientific and literary journals. Mr. Swartz allegedly broke into computer networks at MIT by gaining entry to a utility closet on campus and leaving a laptop that he programmed to request a huge volume of articles from JSTOR.[2]
Mr. Swartz reportedly turned over hard drives containing 4.8 million documents to federal law enforcement officials, and JSTOR declined to pursue the case.[3] Carmen M. Ortiz, the Massachusetts U.S. Attorney, declined to drop the charges, saying that “stealing is stealing,
- ↑ Noam Cohen, A Data Crusader, A Defendant and Now, a Cause. N.Y. Times (Jan. 13, 2013) (Online at: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/14/technology/aaron-swartz-a-data-criusader-and-now-a-cause.html?pagewanted-all&_r=0).
- ↑ Superseding Indictment, United States v. Aaron Swartz, No. 11-CR-10260 (D. Mass. Sept. 12, 2012).
- ↑ Press release, Misuse Incident and Criminal Case. JSTOR (July 19, 2011)(Online at: http://about.jstor.org/news/jstor-statement-misuse-incident-and-criminal-case.
