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Aaron Swartz
Los Angeles (CNN) -- Aaron Swartz, an Internet savant who at a young age shaped the online era by co-developing RSS and Reddit and later became a digital activist, has committed suicide, a relative told CNN Saturday.
He was 26 years old.
A prodigy, Swartz was behind some of the Internet's iconic moments, soaring to heights that many developers only dream of. At the same time, he was plagued by legal problems arising from his aggressive activism, and he was also known to suffer depression, a personal matter that he publicly revealed on his blog.
http://www.cnn.com/2013/01/12/us/new...ide/index.html
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Wow... this makes me sad. I've worked in the tech industry for 26 years, so this hits close to home. It always makes me wonder when they say someone who has committed suicide suffered from depression, whether the person was taking their prescribed medication. I've learned those meds can sometimes actually make a person's depression worse, giving them thoughts of suicide. RIP Aaron.
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What a shame. I do hope that the ideals for which he fought so hard are not glossed over and abandoned by the presupposition that, oh, he was just depressed. Granted, the FBI and MIT didn't make him kill himself, but I imagine some of those issues played a role. RIP.
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Thanks for posting that. I guess his loved ones still feel pretty strongly that MIT "whitewashed" everything, but he did have 14 federal felony charges against him (if his Ethernet access would be proven authorized, though, that would change things). Wish he wasn't still dead. :(
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Dad says he would still be alive if he were not arrested: http://money.cnn.com/2014/06/27/tech...&iid=obnetwork
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This tragedy is sadness squared.
I just found a documentary about him called "The Internet's Own Boy" (2014) online at my library and placed a hold on it. I can't wait to see it even though I know its devastating ending. No foul play was ever proven, although users of the site Swartz pioneered, Reddit, still suspect it.
