Aaron Swartz(1/11/13) and SOPA – 1/21/2013

Our knowledge before his death was very little, what we did find out is he supported the defeat of SOPA and we shared in this belief.  Our reasons for wanting SOPA to be defeated may have been different then Aaron’s. We blogged about SOPA a while back because we felt that the Government would have been allowed to much freedom, the ability to investigate and stifle individuals and have too much access with no checks or balances. In these laws it allowed for shutting down servers and confiscating property based possibly on simple accusations. It also would put undue pressure on ISP’s and electronic mail providers to act as police for the industry.  Privacy rights were issues within SOPA and other bills being considered.

Aaron’s view had more to do with individuals rights to access, while we may challenge some of these issues as when is “Free not Fair”.  A large part of his work was to make public records truly public.  In the old days when things had to be printed and clerks had to be paid it made sense to charge, but today fewer hands are involved so only the costs of translation and maintenance need to be recouped.  I urge everybody to do a little research about Aaron Swartz so they can become familiar with some of the laws our Congress is trying to write.  The face of Free Speech seems to be changing and if not careful we may let the politicians take some of that right away.

We also need to start understanding what the cost of Free can mean and how it effects our local and world economies.   Society still lives on some form of profit or a way to earn income, and inventors, writers, and other contributors still deserve to earn a living. So we need to be diligent on understanding what should be “Free” for all and what still needs to be paid or bought.  Other areas that this issue bleeds into include things like the Music, Video, and Movie industries. These groups utilize large lobbyists to protect their interest.  We are not trying to imply that Aaron was bad in what he did, most of it was for social good. 

We do believe what he did was extremely important because most individuals would sit by the sidelines and take a what ever happens approach.  Please use this review and some of the causes of Aaron to become more aware of how Electronic Information and the access to it effect your life and that laws being debated could make it easier or harder in the future for you to access data or make it overly easy for others to pry into your data.

Call to business for anyone reading this article, “Get more educated about these issues and let our Politicians know how you feel.”

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