Secret Service Interviewed Aaron Swartz's Friends About Guerilla Open Access Manifesto

from the because-that-must-be-evil,-right? Dept

For a while it has been stated, without direct evidence, that part of the reason why the feds were so focused on Aaron Swartz was because of the now infamous Guerilla Open Access Manifesto, which Aaron Swartz had posted online years ago (there is some question as to whether Aaron wrote the whole thing himself, or co-authored it with others...). The feds seemed to take that as some sort of proof that Swartz was downloading JSTOR articles to release them for free online, though one would hope they had a lot more evidence than a random internet rant from many years ago. Either way, as part of Kevin Poulsen's FOIA request for the Secret Service files on Aaron Swartz -- files that are being fought over in court -- the first 100 pages have been released, with another 14,400 or so to go.

There really isn't that much interesting in the documents, as they mostly focus on items seized via search warrants. However, there are two interesting tidbits, both highlighted by Poulsen in his article. The first is more evidence that the feds really did think that the Open Access Manifesto was a key bit of evidence in the case. [...]