India Internet News
Harvard University Student Hacks MIT Network
20 July 2011
A Harvard University student who was learning ethics was arrested for hacking the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's computer network to theft about 5 million academic articles.
A 24 year old Aaron Swartz of Cambridge was found culprit for thefting JSTOR documents, a popular research subscription service which delivers digital copies of more than 1,000 academic periodicals and documents, few older than 17th century.
In an accusation, prosecutors told that Swartz have stolen 4.8 million articles between September 2010 and January after breaking into a computer wiring closet on MIT's campus. Swartz was an ethics learner at the Edmond J Safra Center. He downloaded a lot of documents since first October, day on which some of JSTOR's computer servers crashed.
According to the prosecutors, he attempted to spread all the articles on file-sharing websites.
On Tuesday, Swartz turned on his own and was called in U.S. District Court, where he invoked not guilty to charges such as wire fraud, computer fraud and unlawfully obtaining data from a protected computer. He was set free on $100,000 unsecured bond and be present up to 35 years in prison, if condemned.
US Attorney Carmen Ortiz said, "Stealing is stealing whether you use a computer command or a crowbar, and whether you take documents, data or dollars. It is equally harmful to the victim whether you sell what you have stolen or give it away."
An appeal for Swartz's attorney wasn't instantly returned.
A speaker on behalf of JSTOR stated Swartz had agreed to give back all the articles so the company can make sure they are not published. Heidi McGregor said in a statement, "We don't own any of this content. We really have to responsible stewards of it. We worked hard to find out what was going on. We worked hard to get the data back."
Swartz is an online activist and an owner of the website Demand Progress whose motto suggests it "works to win progressive policy changes for ordinary people." The website represents Swartz as "the author of numerous articles on a variety of topics, especially the corrupting influence of big money on institutions including nonprofits, the media, politics, and public opinion." He, along with the other researcher, once downloaded and analyzed more than 440,000 law review articles to define their sponsors.
According to David Segal, Demand Progress's executive director, statement present on the website the charges against Swartz does not make any sense.