A martyr in the fight for free online access to research

By killing himself, Internet activist Aaron Swartz has heated up the battle over whether the works of scientists and scholars should be available for free.

SAN FRANCISCO — They came from all over Silicon Valley, hundreds packing the pews of an old church to pay their respects to Aaron Swartz , the 26-year-old programmer and Internet activist who took his own life this month. They didn't just come to mourn a fallen comrade, they said. They came to carry on his fight. The memorial service held last week at the Internet Archive, a nonprofit group that occupies a former church in San Francisco, was as much political rally as solemn tribute.

"Aaron Swartz was not a criminal. He was a citizen and a brave soldier in a war which continues today, a war in which corrupt and venal profiteers try to steal and hoard and starve our public domain for their own private gain," said Carl Malamud, a technologist and outspoken advocate for open access to information. In death, Swartz has become a political martyr for the cause he championed in life: making scientific and scholarly research — much of it taxpayer-funded — freely available, not sequestered behind online pay walls out of the reach of the public...