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EU Commission VP Neelie Kroes on Aaron Swartz ~pj
Wednesday, January 23 2013 @ 01:22 PM EST

The EU Commission's Vice President Neelie Kroes has now offered her thoughts on Aaron Swartz, and on the benefits of openness:
You’ve probably seen the terrible news about the death of Aaron Swartz. It’s always horrifying when someone so young and so clearly talented feels they have no option but to take their own life. I know that this is something that shook the internet community deeply. And my thoughts are with his family, and what they must be going through right now.

This was a man who saw that greater openness can be good for citizens, and good for society. Hugely disruptive – but hugely beneficial.

For me, the case is particularly clear when there aren’t copyright issues, when information was already paid for by taxpayers, and when more openness can help new innovations and scientific discoveries.

I would never condone unlawful activity. But in my view, if our laws, frameworks and practices stand in the way of us getting all those benefits, then maybe they need to be changed.

Agree or disagree with his methods, Aaron could see the open direction we’re heading in, and its benefits. In the meantime, those scientists who are paying tribute by making their own work legally, openly available aren’t just showing their respects – they are also benefiting scientific progress.

MIT announces that its report on its role in the Aaron Swartz tragedy will be available in "a few weeks".

If you have suggestions for MIT, here are their directions:
The review will be conducted in two phases, writes Abelson. The first phase will be completed “in a few weeks,” with a report that gives a “clear record” of what happened and provides “insight into what MIT did or didn’t do, and why.” Upon the conclusion of that phase MIT will enter a second phase of analyzing the implications of the findings.

MIT will refrain from commenting on the situation until the release of the report.

Members of the MIT community can suggest questions for Abelson’s analysis via http://swartz-review.mit.edu.

And I have been thinking about the We the People petitions. I think the best would be one that quotes Ms. Kroes and simply asks that there be a review of US computer laws and copyright laws that protect copyright and other "intellectual property" rights to ensure that they are rebalanced to reflect the importance to the public of openness as well.

  


EU Commission VP Neelie Kroes on Aaron Swartz ~pj | 136 comments | Create New Account
Comments belong to whoever posts them. Please notify us of inappropriate comments.
Corrections here
Authored by: feldegast on Wednesday, January 23 2013 @ 01:52 PM EST
So they can be fixed

---
IANAL
My posts are ©2004-2013 and released under the Creative Commons License
Attribution-Noncommercial 2.0
P.J. has permission for commercial use.

[ Reply to This | # ]

  • Start here - Authored by: Anonymous on Thursday, January 24 2013 @ 05:04 PM EST
News picks
Authored by: feldegast on Wednesday, January 23 2013 @ 01:53 PM EST
Please make links clickable

---
IANAL
My posts are ©2004-2013 and released under the Creative Commons License
Attribution-Noncommercial 2.0
P.J. has permission for commercial use.

[ Reply to This | # ]

Off topic
Authored by: feldegast on Wednesday, January 23 2013 @ 01:54 PM EST
Please make links clickable

---
IANAL
My posts are ©2004-2013 and released under the Creative Commons License
Attribution-Noncommercial 2.0
P.J. has permission for commercial use.

[ Reply to This | # ]

Comes transcribing
Authored by: feldegast on Wednesday, January 23 2013 @ 01:55 PM EST
Thank you for your support

---
IANAL
My posts are ©2004-2013 and released under the Creative Commons License
Attribution-Noncommercial 2.0
P.J. has permission for commercial use.

[ Reply to This | # ]

Neelie Kroes rocks!
Authored by: Gringo_ on Wednesday, January 23 2013 @ 04:41 PM EST
She gets it!

[ Reply to This | # ]

American Heritage
Authored by: Anonymous on Wednesday, January 23 2013 @ 04:53 PM EST
"Give me liberty or give me death" Patrick Henry, March 23, 1775

The commissioner goes to the trouble to mention that she does not and never
will condone unlawful activity.

It's clear that criminalizing non-criminal activities is really a trend that has

been ongoing for some time. The purpose seems to be only to marginalize
otherwise perfectly law abiding people, perhaps for the "benefit" of a
small
group's commercial activities.

And in that light her words only serve as declension or even misdirection of
the real problem. The legal system including the lawmaking bodies need
more and better leadership. The patent system, the legal process, now even
criminal law is all getting to the point of no longer serving the people.

[ Reply to This | # ]

MITchief
Authored by: tz on Wednesday, January 23 2013 @ 06:25 PM EST
I'm old enough to remember Kent State and other evils during the protest against
Vietnam.

MIT apparently gets enough money from whomever to be as corrupt as Wall Street,
but although there were #occupy movements in some of the universities in
California, there were none in the state which gave us our second president and
founding father John Adams.

I don't remember what MIT was doing during Vietnam.

Yet somewhere in universities should be people responsible for ethics. If MIT
is now "might makes right" so they will play toady, or "the end
justifies the means", or any of several other amoral if not evil thoughts,
they deserve opprobrium.

Yet I reserve my most concentrated vitriol to those who over the past decade or
decades watches as a series of people were similarly driven to suicide if not
actually murdered and shrugged, or merely said "well, they were, you know,
ewwww...". Those incinerated at the Branch Davidian compound in Waco.
Randy Weaver's wife and son. Bruce Ivins - hounded over the anthrax attacks
until he too committed suicide, with the FBI trying to get his family to turn on
him, but he appears to be innocent. Steven Hatfill whose career was destroyed
by the FBI earlier. I could go on for pages.

Most of you only care about Aaron Swartz because he was someone you respect, but
didn't care about the hundreds of earlier victims of the same federal death
machine. Nor do most of the people who care about many of the other victims
care about Aaron Swartz.

Yet this is why it continues. We don't want freedom, due process, and all those
messy things. We want jackboots to bypass all that messy stuff and attack those
we dislike or do something we disagree with. Yet when the identical injustice
happens to one of our own we call it tyranny.

It is tyranny in all cases. Yet the argument was, is, and I suspect a year from
now how can we make the tyranny worse and direct it against those we hate. The
religious right and the gay liberation movement want to use the jackboots to
kill each other. Neither want to eliminate the jackboots.

I do. That is the only true answer. Smaller government. One that leaves such
things to the local sheriff or police. One that doesn't make a federal case out
of everything. One that doesn't care what you do in your bedroom even if your
computer is there. One that doesn't deny just religious institutions funds - it
denies everyone because such is none of its business. One that doesn't say whom
is and whom is not married - divorce is more destructive than anything else.
One that lets states be evil if they want to be because to control them is a
greater evil.

If we simply swap jackboots or their targets in response to Aaron's death, he
died not merely for nothing, his death itself is dishonored. If we realize we
have created a monster and start to defuse and dismantle it so no one else dies
at its hand, his life and death will have meaning for this and maybe future
centuries.

[ Reply to This | # ]

EU Commission VP Neelie Kroes on Aaron Swartz ~pj
Authored by: vruz on Wednesday, January 23 2013 @ 10:33 PM EST
No, it wouldn't be the best thing to see it as a mutually
exclusive measure.

I reject the notion that it's not the public's business to
demand accountability. Especially in situations of great
injustice --be them legally sanctioned or not-- it's the
people's moral obligation to say enough is enough.

Secondly, to point government in the right direction
demanding accountability for abuse of power is not mutually
exclusive with fixing the law.

One measure is a short term one, to ensure people who have a
judicious nature of Ortiz's calibre don't unnecessarily
force people out of life. It's important to stop them right
now. To do otherwise would only encourage them to amass yet
more power in even higher offices they can't be trusted
with. The people don't deserve any more punishments.

The other is a long term measure --as justice, ethics and
the law all move at different speeds-- to ensure it doesn't
happen ever again to anybody else.

Both things are necessary, and not mutually exclusive.

---
--- the vruz

[ Reply to This | # ]

EU Commission VP Neelie Kroes on Aaron Swartz ~pj
Authored by: vruz on Wednesday, January 23 2013 @ 10:49 PM EST
One more thing:

It's quite telling to me that these words of sensibility and
reflection come from VP Neelie Kroes, of the European
government, and nothing comparable has been produced by any
officer of the US government at any level.

It's not just the law, it's the policy. Res, non verba.

---
--- the vruz

[ Reply to This | # ]

only young and talented?
Authored by: Anonymous on Thursday, January 24 2013 @ 10:13 AM EST
What about all those not so talented? Those fameless but not less talented?

cb

[ Reply to This | # ]

MIT Report
Authored by: Anonymous on Thursday, January 24 2013 @ 10:14 AM EST
MIT announces that its report on its role in the Aaron Swartz tragedy will be available in "a few weeks".

Unfortunately, it will only be available behind a paywall. ;)

[ Reply to This | # ]

Neelie Kroes goes to Hollywood
Authored by: IMANAL_TOO on Thursday, January 24 2013 @ 05:03 PM EST
Neelie Kroes goes to Hollywood, or at least YouTube...
Here are three video statements of hers:

- Neelie Kroes on open source and the importance of communities

- JOIN THE MOVEMENT FOR DIGITAL ACTION

- Neelie Kroes invites scientific community to stimulate Open Access

Three examples of Neelie Kroes' ideas which provide a background for her current reaction.


---
______
IMANAL


.

[ Reply to This | # ]
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