Aaron Hillel George Swartz
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Aaron Swartz co-authored the RSS 1.0 web syndication specification at age 14 in 2000. He later co-founded Reddit after Infogami merged with it. In 2011, he was arrested by MIT police for downloading academic articles from JSTOR, leading to federal charges that carried a potential 35-year prison sentence. Swartz died by suicide in his Brooklyn apartment in January 2013 at age 26.
Names, aliases, and relatives of Aaron Swartz — birth name, kin, and personal ties.
Aaron Swartz by the numbers — life, work, and family.
Aaron Swartz — early life, career, personal life, and legacy.
At age 12 in 1999, Aaron Swartz created The Info Network, a user-generated encyclopedia that won the ArsDigita Prize. He was born on November 8, 1986, in Chicago, Illinois, to Susan Swartz and Robert Swartz, who founded the software firm Mark Williams Company.
Swartz attended North Shore Country Day School and later Stanford University. His father’s software background and his early success with The Info Network propelled him into programming and activism.
At age 14, Swartz joined the working group that authored the RSS 1.0 web syndication specification. A year later, he became involved with Creative Commons. He built Infogami, which was later absorbed into the social news site Reddit, making him a co-owner.
He helped start the Progressive Change Campaign Committee in 2009 and founded Demand Progress, which campaigned against the Stop Online Piracy Act. The following year, he became a research fellow at Harvard’s Safra Research Lab on Institutional Corruption and wrote the Guerilla Open Access Manifesto.
In January 2011, Swartz was arrested by MIT police and charged with wire fraud and computer fraud for downloading academic articles from JSTOR. The prosecution sought up to 35 years in prison, leading to his death in 2013.
Swartz identified as an atheist. His partner, Taren Stinebrickner-Kauffman, found him dead in his Brooklyn apartment. After his death, his family recommended GiveWell for donations, an organization Swartz admired. He had two siblings: Ben Swartz and Noah Swartz. His father founded the software firm Mark Williams Company.
He collaborated with groups like WikiLeaks, though the extent of his involvement is debated. In 2006, he ran unsuccessfully for the Wikimedia Foundation’s Board of Trustees.
In 2013, Swartz was posthumously inducted into the Internet Hall of Fame. He also received the EFF Award and the James Madison Award. His death sparked widespread debate about prosecutorial overreach and copyright reform. A biographical film, Think Aaron, is being developed by HBO Films, and the documentary The Internet’s Own Boy: the Story of Aaron Swartz 2014 chronicles his life and prosecution.
Activists and technologists champion Swartz for his open access activism and internet freedom work.
The complete filmography of Aaron Swartz — every film, TV show, and documentary credit, ranked by popularity.
Every award, honor, and recognition received by Aaron Swartz — Grammys, hall-of-fame inductions, civic honors, lifetime achievements.
A wall of memorable lines from Aaron Swartz — lyrics, interviews, and off-the-cuff remarks captured over a lifetime.
Be Curious. Read Widely. Try New Things. I Think a Lot of What People Call Intelligence Just Boils Down to Curiosity.
Little-known facts about Aaron Swartz — origins, oddities, and behind-the-scenes details from a public life.
Swartz’s partner, Taren Stinebrickner-Kauffman, found him dead of suicide by hanging in his Brooklyn apartment in January 2013, almost two years after federal prosecutors rejected a plea bargain offer. No suicide note was discovered.
He helped start the Progressive Change Campaign Committee in 2009 to further the cause of effective online activism. The next year, he became a research fellow at Harvard’s Safra Research Lab on Institutional Corruption and founded the online group Demand Progress, which campaigned against the Stop Online Piracy Act.
In January 2011, he was arrested by MIT police on breaking-and-entering charges for downloading academic articles. Federal prosecutors then charged him with two counts of wire fraud and eleven violations of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act. The charges brought a total maximum penalty of $1 million in fines and thirty-five years in prison.
Creator of Infogami, which was absorbed into social news website Reddit, and co-author of the RSS online news feed specification.
Brother of Ben Swartz and Noah Swartz.
Son of Susan Swartz and Robert Swartz.
In 2006, he ran unsuccessfully for the Wikimedia Foundation’s Board of Trustees.
Wikileaks may have made the statements to imply that Swartz was targeted by the US Attorney’s Office and Secret Service in order to get at WikiLeaks.
On September 12, 2012, federal prosecutors filed a superseding indictment adding nine more felony counts, increasing Swartz’s maximum criminal exposure to 50 years of imprisonment and $1 million in fines. During plea negotiations with Swartz’s attorneys, the prosecutors offered to recommend a sentence of six months in a low-security prison if Swartz pled guilty to 13 federal crimes. Swartz and his lead attorney rejected the deal, opting instead for a trial where prosecutors would be forced to justify their pursuit of him.
In 2013, Swartz was inducted posthumously into the Internet Hall of Fame.
On the night of January 6, 2011, Swartz was arrested near the Harvard campus by MIT Police and a Secret Service agent, and arraigned in Cambridge District Court on two state charges of breaking and entering with intent to commit a felony.
In 1999, at age twelve, he created the website The Info Network, a user-generated encyclopedia. The site won the ArsDigita Prize, given to young people who create useful, educational, and collaborative noncommercial websites and led to early recognition of Swartz’s nascent talent in coding.
In January 2013 shortly after he died, WikiLeaks said that Aaron Swartz had helped WikiLeaks and talked to Julian Assange in 2010 and 2011. WikiLeaks also said they had strong reasons to believe, but cannot prove he may have been a source, possibly breaking WikiLeaks’ rules about source anonymity.
Aaron Swartz was an American computer programmer, entrepreneur, writer, political organizer, and Internet hacktivist.
On July 11, 2011, he was indicted by a federal grand jury on charges of wire fraud, computer fraud, unlawfully obtaining information from a protected computer, and recklessly damaging a protected computer.
On December 4, 2013, due to a Freedom of Information Act suit by the investigations editor of Wired magazine, several documents related to the case were released by the Secret Service, including a video of Swartz entering the MIT network closet.
On December 27, 2010, he filed a Freedom of Information Act FOIA request to learn about the treatment of Chelsea Manning, alleged source for WikiLeaks.
His father founded the software firm Mark Williams Company.
At age 14, he became a member of the working group that authored the RSS 1.0 web syndication specification. A year later, he became involved in the Creative Commons organization.
Swartz’s family recommended GiveWell for donations in his memory, an organization that Swartz admired, had collaborated with and was the sole beneficiary of his will.
He founded the online group Demand Progress, known for its campaign against the Stop Online Piracy Act.
On November 17, 2011, Swartz was indicted by a Middlesex County Superior Court grand jury on state charges of breaking and entering with intent, grand larceny, and unauthorized access to a computer network. On December 16, 2011, state prosecutors filed a notice that they were dropping the two original charges, and the charges listed in the November 17, 2011, indictment were dropped on March 8, 2012. According to a spokesperson for the Middlesex County prosecutor, this was done to avoid impeding a federal prosecution headed by Stephen P. Heymann, supported by evidence provided by Secret Service agent Michael S. Pickett.
He was an atheist.
A biographical film about Swartz, Think Aaron, is being developed by HBO Films.
In 2008, Swartz founded Watchdog.net, the good government site with teeth, to aggregate and visualize data about politicians. That year, he wrote a widely circulated Guerilla Open Access Manifesto.
Quick answers to the questions readers ask most about Aaron Swartz.
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