It’s a sad tale, indeed. I wonder how he’d feel about what became of Reddit though. It’s become a censorship-ridden, woke cesspool. The owners must’ve made a ton on the IPO though, which I’m sure he would’ve enjoyed.
Aaron Swartz would have loved nostr.
Effectively the culmination of his life’s work.
1999: At the age of 12, he co-authored the RSS 1.0 specification, which is a format for syndicating web content.
2000: Swartz became a member of the Creative Commons organization, which aims to expand the range of creative works available for others to build upon legally.
2002: He founded the Infogami platform, which later merged with Reddit.
2005: Swartz joined Reddit as a co-founder after a merger with Infogami.
2006: He left Reddit and began working on various projects, including the development of the web application framework, "Open Library," which aimed to create a web page for every book ever published.
2008: Swartz was involved in the development of the "Demand Progress" organization, which focused on issues related to internet freedom and government transparency.
2010: He played a significant role in the campaign against the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the Protect IP Act (PIPA), advocating for internet freedom. He also developed a tool that allowed users to download large amounts of data from PACER (Public Access to Court Electronic Records), which was typically behind a paywall.
2011: Swartz was arrested for downloading a large number of academic journal articles from JSTOR with the intent to distribute them freely. The U.S. Attorney's Office in Massachusetts pursued the case against Swartz, and he faced the possibility of severe penalties, including up to 35 years in prison.
2012: On January 11, Aaron Swartz tragically passed away at the age of 26. He allegedly took his own life due to the pressure of government prosecution.
https://cdn.satellite.earth/43780cc29e73f0ac8a226aba6e3ca93422a9022c4b27422995e5b99127d8d900.mp4
Discussion
He openly hated where it was going before he died and would hate it now, including the IPO. He wasn't driven by money and never had anything to worry about financially from a young age because the academic system accidentally gave him recognition for his genius early on before they figured out they can't afford to let the smartest people from the recent generations get famous for being that smart.