This is what I understand of Aaron's action. First, to be clear, JSTOR settled with Aaron last summer. Aaron was trying to raise consciousness around their model. JSTOR does not pay out a penny to the author or the author's host institution. They do not pay royalties to the research funders - often the taxpayer, so maybe you and me. In other circumstances this would make the work public domain. The only money goes to the paper journal publisher. That is the firewall consortium JSTOR represents. That is the message Aaron meant to amplify with what he likely saw as political/ethical art performance civil disobedience. Personally I think if he had not been on federal radar for organizing SOPA/PIPA nothing more would have come from it as a Harvard-connected white academic of a certain status. But as it is, he faced seven figures in damages and three decades in hard time even after he settled with JSTOR. This is the way my family has observed activists attempted to be neutralized by the immune system of the federal government since Eugene Debs. I have three generations of witness. My instinct is that when you see resources expended out of proportion, look for the proportionate end. Aaron was not being chilled for his potential in copying files, I suspect. He just handed them something for which he could be charged. We can't let it go without response just because it is classic and chronic. I am organizing a vigil at 1 Courthouse in Boston 2pm Tuesday, probably small, and we'll follow on from that at MIT. Federal Prosecutor Ortiz does not seem like a monster in general, and there is hope for some good nonviolent ends out of this. Feedback welcome. Yrs, -- Unsubscribe, change to digest, or change password at: https://mailman.stanford.edu/mailman/listinfo/liberationtech ----- End forwarded message ----- -- Eugen* Leitl <a href="http://leitl.org">leitl</a> http://leitl.org ______________________________________________________________ ICBM: 48.07100, 11.36820 http://www.ativel.com http://postbiota.org 8B29F6BE: 099D 78BA 2FD3 B014 B08A 7779 75B0 2443 8B29 F6BE