On January 11, 2013, Aaron Schwartz, a co-founder of Reddit.com, committed suicide after he was prosecuted for trying to release articles from the database JSTOR. However, a Tumblr by a friend of Schwartz says that while JSTOR dropped the charges, a different "prosecutor had the excuse he needed to continue his war against the “criminal." Instead of dropping the charges like the others, MIT's prosecutor pursued Schwartz as though he committed a much worse crime. I don't think this treatment was fair at all, especially when it drives the defendant to suicide.
I believe that if the charges had not been so harsh, that Aaron might not have killed himself. I think that the punishment he faced did not fit the "crime" at all. What do you think? Were the charges just? What do you think the prosecutors should have done to better handle the case? Post you thoughts in the comments below.
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