MIT on Aaron Swartz: We did nothing wrong

"MIT's decisions were reasonable, appropriate and made in good faith," says President Reif

Published July 30, 2013 3:52PM (EDT)

Aaron Swartz              (Wikipedia)
Aaron Swartz (Wikipedia)

At the funeral of activist Aaron Swartz, who committed suicide in January while fighting prosecution on felony charges alleging he had stolen millions of documents from computer servers hosted an online archive at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, his father Robert Swartz singled out two guilty parties:

"He was killed by the government, and MIT betrayed all of its basic principles."

On Tuesday, MIT's president declared, unequivocally, that MIT had betrayed nothing. In a cover letter accompanying a long-awaited report investigating MIT's involvement in the prosecution of Aaron Swartz, President L. Rafael Reif swore the university had done no wrong.

The report ... sets the record straight by dispelling widely circulated myths. For example, it makes clear that MIT did not “target” Aaron Swartz, we did not seek federal prosecution, punishment or jail time, and we did not oppose a plea bargain...

...From studying this review of MIT's role, I am confident that MIT's decisions were reasonable, appropriate and made in good faith.

The full report and cover letter can be found here.

A response from Swartz's partner at the time of his death, Taren Stinebrickner-Kauffman, calling the report a "whitewash" is here.

 

 

 

 

 

 


By Andrew Leonard

Andrew Leonard is a staff writer at Salon. On Twitter, @koxinga21.

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Related Topics ------------------------------------------

Aaron Swartz Internet Activism M.i.t. Mit Swartz Report