[okfn-discuss] Fwd: Demand justice for Aaron Swartz

[Everton Zanella Alvarenga]

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Alexandre Hannud Abdo <abdo at member.fsf.org>
Date: 2013/1/17
Subject: [Wikimedia Brasil] Fwd: Demand justice for Aaron Swartz
To: Wikimedia BR <wikimediabr-l at lists.wikimedia.org>


Ni! Friends,

I just received this email from Demand Progress and Lawrence Lessig, in
response to Aaron Swartz's tragic passing. Click here to support Aaron's
Law and the effort to achieve justice for Aaron:

http://act.demandprogress.org/letter/aaron_justice/?referring_akid=1969.1596981.8zbJ9V&source=mailto

We spent yesterday burying and mourning our friend Aaron. We're sad,
we're tired, we're frustrated -- and we're angry at a system that let
this happen to Aaron. Now we want to set upon honoring his life's work
and helping to make sure that such a travesty is never repeated.

We and Aaron's friends and family have been in touch with lawmakers to
ask for help, and several of them -- who've worked with Aaron and Demand
Progress on SOPA and other issues -- are beginning to take action. We're
asking them to help rein in a criminal justice system run amok, wherein
authorities are encouraged to bring frivolous charges and hold decades
of jail time over the heads of people who are accused of committing
victimless crimes.

1) Representative Zoe Lofgren has introduced what's been named "Aaron's
Law." It would fix a key part of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act
(CFAA), which is one of the statutes under which Aaron was indicted. We
need to pass Aaron's Law AND further amend the CFAA.

The CFAA makes violations of a website's terms of service agreement or
user agreement -- that fine print you never read before you check the
box next to it -- a FELONY, potentially punishable by many years in
prison. That's how over-broad this dangerous statute is, and one way it
lets showboating prosecutors file charges against people who've done
nothing wrong.

Aaron's Law would decriminalize violating these agreements: They're
essentially contracts, and as with other contracts, disputes about them
should be settled in civil courts rather than in out of control criminal
trials under threat of decades of prison time.

Aaron's Law alone wouldn't have saved Aaron -- there is still more to do
to make sure that victimless computer activities are not charged as
felonies -- but this is a solid start that we can pass now and it's a
law he wanted to change. Then we'll keep pushing forward.

Click here to join us in demanding justice for Aaron:

http://act.demandprogress.org/letter/aaron_justice/?referring_akid=1969.1596981.8zbJ9V&source=mailto

2) Additionally, we asked Congressman Darrell Issa -- who controls the
powerful Oversight Committee -- to open an investigation into
prosecutorial misconduct in Aaron's case.

Amazingly, he's already responded and is sending an investigator to the
office of the U.S. Attorney who was pressing charges against Aaron.

We want the inquiry to proceed, and to be broadened to include a more
thorough investigation into rampant over-prosecution of alleged crimes
with no victims -- as in the case of what Aaron was accused of. And we
want those who abused their power to be held to account.

We loved Aaron -- so many people loved Aaron -- and his death is tragic.
We and others who were close to him are overwhelmed by the outpouring of
support, and the calls for justice. Thank you for joining us in that fight.

Click here to join us in demanding justice for Aaron:

http://act.demandprogress.org/letter/aaron_justice/?referring_akid=1969.1596981.8zbJ9V&source=mailto


-Demand Progress


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-- 
Everton Zanella Alvarenga (also Tom)
Open Knowledge Foundation Brasil
http://br.okfn.org