<div dir="ltr">Aaron Swartz, computer programmer and activist, committed suicide on January 11th, aged 26<br>- <a href="http://www.economist.com/news/obituary/21569674-aaron-swartz-computer-programmer-and-activist-committed-suicide-january-11th-aged-26-aaron">http://www.economist.com/news/obituary/21569674-aaron-swartz-computer-programmer-and-activist-committed-suicide-january-11th-aged-26-aaron</a><br>
<br>Swartz was well-known in technology circles for helping develop the RSS web feed format and the popular site Reddit, among other accomplishments. At the time of his death, he was facing 13 felony charges and up to 50 years in prison: Prosecutors had accused him of using MIT's network to download too many scholarly articles from an academic database called JSTOR.<br>
- Swartz's friends and family have said they believe he was driven to his death by a justice system that hounded him needlessly over an alleged crime with no real victims. "[He was] forced by the government to spend every fiber of his being on this damnable, senseless trial," his partner Taren Stinebrickner-Kauffman said at the memorial, "with no guarantee that he could exonerate himself at the end of it."<br>
<a href="http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/why-did-the-justice-system-target-aaron-swartz-20130123">http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/why-did-the-justice-system-target-aaron-swartz-20130123</a><br><br><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aaron_Swartz">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aaron_Swartz</a><br>
<br><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/13/technology/aaron-swartz-internet-activist-dies-at-26.html?_r=0">http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/13/technology/aaron-swartz-internet-activist-dies-at-26.html?_r=0</a><br></div>