[00:00.00]From VOA Learning English, this is the TECHNOLOGY REPORT in Special English.
[00:06.61]Have you ever had an RSS news feed sent to your mobile phone or computer?
[00:13.19]If so, you have Aaron Swartz to thank.
[00:17.27]He helped develop that Internet publishing technology when he was only 14.
[00:23.29]He also helped develop what came to be known as the social news website Reddit.
[00:29.88]The 26-year-old Internet activist was found dead in his Brooklyn, New York apartment on January 11.
[00:38.99]His death was ruled a suicide.
[00:42.38]Aaron Swartz believed that information is knowledge.
[00:46.87]He believed the Internet should be used to make that knowledge available to everyone.
[00:53.24]This belief is what eventually got him in trouble with the law.
[00:57.92]He was to face a federal trial in April.
[01:02.01]He was accused of using computers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to download millions of scholarly documents from JSTOR.
[01:13.86]The online service charges fees to use its huge collection of research publications.
[01:21.03]Aaron Swarts could have faced 35 years in prison
[01:26.34]and as much as $1 million in fines.
[01:30.42]Some people have called the charges extreme.
[01:34.56]Renee Hutchins is a law professor at the University of Maryland.
[01:39.80]"It is questionable whether or not the prosecution in this case had a solid criminal case against Aaron Swartz.
[01:46.72]Basically what he is accused of doing is violating a user agreement with JSTOR."
[01:51.43]Professor Hutchins says Mister Swartz had legal accounts with JSTOR and with MIT, through Harvard University.
[02:01.90]"It is a really close question whether or not Aaron Swartz use of his Harvard account through the MIT network to JSTOR to download more than he should have legitimately was a criminal offense."
[02:19.74]A Court of Appeals ruled that his actions violated user agreements and could be considered criminal.
[02:27.41]However, Professor Hutchins notes that a more recent ruling by the Ninth Circuit Court disagreed.
[02:35.53]"Unknowingly we may all be violating the terms of those agreements every single day, in multiple ways.
[02:41.16]And what the Ninth Circuit said is that's really not the business of federal criminal statue;
[02:45.89]that that's not what they were going for."
[02:47.64]Aaron Swartz' family accused the United States Attorney's office of fighting a crime that had, in their words, "no victims."
[02:57.60]And they criticized MIT for refusing to "stand up for Aaron."
[03:03.62]MIT has called for its own investigation of its involvement in the case.
[03:09.90]More than 40,000 people have signed a petition at the White House website for citizen opinions.
[03:17.28]It calls for the District Attorney in the case to be removed from office.
[03:23.35]The District Attorney has said the office acted appropriately in its handling of the case.