#AaronSwartz killed himself because he scraped research...

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Ben Royce 🇺🇦

#AaronSwartz killed himself because he scraped research data and they aggressively prosecuted him.

Now #AI companies say they should scrape our data for free.

Bilawal Sidhu:

It's wild that Aaron Swartz was aggressively prosecuted for scraping JSTOR articles.
Meanwhile huge companies routinely scrape the public internet and sell it for $20/month and all is well.
Aaron helped create RSS, Creative Commons, Markdown and a little site called Reddit (which now ironically sells its data to Al companies) - all by the age of 26.
All he wanted was free and open access to information. Really makes you wonder the dent he'd have made on the world if he was still alive today.

Susan Swartz, Jul 12:

11 years, 6 months. RIP my darling boy.

image of Aaron

6:53 AM Jul 13, 2024

Like 13 Jul 2024 at 20:57 | Open on mastodon.social

11 comments

DELETED

@benroyce wonder what would happen if their data was scraped?

13 Jul 2024 at 20:59 | Open on mastodon.social

Ben Royce 🇺🇦

@alex0233

tech companies aggressive defend against scraping their data, with technical methods and lawyers, while they claim free access to ours

if you're looking for a sense of hypocrisy, know that they have no sense of right and wrong. $$$ for exploitation is their game, and that is all there is to them

13 Jul 2024 at 21:04 | Open on mastodon.social

ponyponypony

@benroyce @alex0233

They think they are the in-group, who the law protects but does not bind.

And who says you are not, if you act like it and get away with it?

14 Jul 2024 at 2:31 | Open on mas.to

Ben Ramsey

@benroyce @blogdiva He was harassed and aggressively prosecuted for doing something that was probably legal, meanwhile, we know what AI scrapers are doing is illegal, and we just let it happen because they have the money.

13 Jul 2024 at 23:17 | Open on phpc.social

Extinction Studies

@ramsey @benroyce @blogdiva

Ask a lawyer what the remedy is, and for whom, and whether a successful civil case is possible.

13 Jul 2024 at 23:30 | Open on hcommons.social

calvin 🛋️

@benroyce wow I only remember learning some things about this guy, mostly about Reddit I think. I didn't know that he contributed to markdown and rss.