14 DAY TRIAL // A US court has ordered the government to release all Secret Service documents related to the case of Aaron Swartz, the activist who committed suicide earlier this year, in response to a lawsuit filed by Wired’s Kevin Poulsen.
The government has identified a total of 14,500 pages of documents that will be released on a rolling basis. The first 104 pages have been released.
The process is slow, particularly now that MIT stepped in. The institute wants to review all the documents before they’re released since it’s concerned that they might contain information regarding MIT community members that cooperated in the investigation of the Secret Service.
“MIT has reason to believe that encompassed within the records sought by the Plaintiff’s is information that, if released in unredacted form, could jeopardize the safety of MIT community and make its network more vulnerable to cyberattacks,” MIT argued.
The 104 pages of Secret Service files are heavily redacted. However, they do confirm the fact that the agency was interested in the “Guerilla Open Access Manifesto” to which Swartz contributed back in 2008.
The documents also describe a February 2011 search on Swartz’s home in Cambridge and a May 2011 interview with one of the activist’s friends regarding the manifesto.
Swartz committed suicide after being charged for downloading a large number of academic journal articles from the digital repository JSTOR via MIT’s computer networks. He faced 50 years in prison and $1 million (€750,000) in fines.
After his death, authorities dropped the charges and vowed to make changes to current legislation, which many say can lead to unfair prosecution.
A bill inspired by Swartz’s suicide was introduced to Senate in June. It aims at reforming the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA).