Internet activist Aaron Swartz dies at 26

Aaron Swartz, a computer programmer and ardent internet activist who played a key role opposing 2011 anti-piracy legislation, was found dead on Friday at age 26.

His family confirmed that he hanged himself in his apartment in Brooklyn, New York.

Friends and fans of Mr Swartz’ work flooded social media feeds and web sites over the weekend with grief-stricken tributes to a coder they considered a “genius” and a “hero”. Many offered lengthy defences of his activist work to make legal and academic documents available for free online – work that garnered the attention of government prosecutors and led to criminal charges still outstanding at the time of his death.

“I’m so sorry for Aaron, and sorry about Aaron,” said friend Cory Doctorow in a blog post. “We have all lost someone today who had more work to do, and who made the world a better place when he did it.”

When he was 14, Mr Swartz helped develop the code for RSS, the online tool that allows internet users to subscribe to news and other web content. He was also an early builder of Reddit, the popular news and information site.

He later co-founded DemandProgress, an advocacy group that took a leading role opposing Hollywood-backed legislation that would have limited access to certain online content. A coalition of these groups and Silicon Valley companies defeated the Stop Online Piracy Act and the Protect Intellectual Property Act in 2012.

The year before, Mr Swartz was indicted on federal charges for breaking into the computer networks of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and illegally downloading 4.8m documents from JSTOR, a paid service for distributing scientific and literary journals.

“Stealing is stealing,” the US attorney said, “whether you use a computer command or a crowbar, and whether you take documents, data or dollars.”

Mr Swartz was facing up to 30 years in prison and a fine of $1m at the time of his death.

Friends and family said the pending charges weighed heavily on the young man, to the point that they played a role in his suicide. His family issued a statement on Saturday placing blame on the Massachusetts US attorney’s office and MIT for his death.

“Aaron’s death is not simply a personal tragedy. It is the product of a criminal justice system rife with intimidation and prosecutorial overreach,” they said. “The US Attorney’s office pursued an exceptionally harsh array of charges, carrying potentially over 30 years in prison, to punish an alleged crime that had no victims.”

Friends also describe Mr Swartz as someone who struggled with depression, as well as various physical ailments. Mr Swartz detailed his suffering from stomach problems, migraines, and depression on his website in 2007.

He also held himself to incredibly high standards, his friends say, which extended to those he loved, sometimes leading to public denouncements of his friends and colleagues.

“But they almost always forgave him,” said Dan Gillmor, a digital media educator, in a blog post. “Because at heart, said Internet Archive founder Brewster Kahle, Aaron was ‘among the best spirits of the Internet generation.’”