14 DAY TRIAL // A 24-year-old programmer and online activist was indicted for stealing over four million academic papers and journals from a not-for-profit archive service.
Aaron Swartz, a respected researcher with Harvard University's Center for Ethics and founder of the Demand Progress political action group, is accused of breaking into an MIT computer wiring closet where he installed a laptop computer configured to download documents from JSTOR, an archive of millions of academic documents.
JSTOR claims that it detected the unauthorized transfers and tried to block them by banning the laptop's IP and MAC addresses. However, Swartz is said to have subverted those bans and continued to copy documents.
The service claims the researcher copied more than 4 million articles, book reviews, and other content from its database. The data was stored on external hard drives connected to the laptop and Swartz would regularly sneak in to replace them.
The researcher, who claims to be a co-founder of Reddit, although this assertion is challenged, was charged with computer intrusion, fraud and data theft. He faces a maximum prison of 35 years in jail and a $1 million fine.
According to the New York Times, Swartz pleaded not guilty to all charges after surrendering himself to police. He was released on bail is expected to appear in court on September 9.
Prosecutors claim the researcher planned to release the documents on a file sharing website. In 2009 he released 19 million pages of federal court documents downloaded from a government database arguing that they should be freely available.
"The government contends that downloading so many journal articles constitutes felony computer hacking and should be punished with time in prison. We disagree.
"The charges are made all the more senseless by the fact that the alleged victim has settled any claims against Aaron, explained they've suffered no loss or damage, and asked the government not to prosecute," Demand Progress said in a statement.
A petition launched by the action group in support of the researcher has gathered over 35,000 signatures. A number of people in the academia have condemned the government's action.