Tuesday, January 29, 2013
Aaron Swartz's Afterword to Cory Doctorow new book, Homeland
Many thanks to Huffington Post for publishing this piece on the Afterword Aaron Swartz wrote for Cory Doctorow's book Homeland.
When someone as downright smart, clued-in, techno-savvy, democratic, and sensitive to human welfare as Cory Doctorow is, describes Swartz as having "the best techno-activist instincts of anyone I knew", you know Swartz was on the right side.
You also know that any government administration who hounds such a person deserves wickedly bad fortune.
Doctorow writes the following words, and if I could claim them for myself I would happily do so, because they state more clearly than I ever could one of my deepest beliefs:
RIP, Aaron Swartz, and all power to your keyboard, Cory Doctorow. Your books for youth and young adults are as important as any such books could possibly be.
When someone as downright smart, clued-in, techno-savvy, democratic, and sensitive to human welfare as Cory Doctorow is, describes Swartz as having "the best techno-activist instincts of anyone I knew", you know Swartz was on the right side.
You also know that any government administration who hounds such a person deserves wickedly bad fortune.
Doctorow writes the following words, and if I could claim them for myself I would happily do so, because they state more clearly than I ever could one of my deepest beliefs:
"The scientific documents he allegedly took from JSTOR were public knowledge in every sense but one. They were publicly funded, produced for public benefit, and were critical to the informed choice of the public. But they were not *accessible* to the public. It's easy to understand why this offended Aaron. It offends the hell out of me."
RIP, Aaron Swartz, and all power to your keyboard, Cory Doctorow. Your books for youth and young adults are as important as any such books could possibly be.
