Fire Alarms Systems

Techdirt As indicated in the last ten days, the death of Aaron Swartz has caused a wave of grief from friends and colleagues, who naturally wish to express their outrage and shock at what past. One might expect. What you can expect is that the Vice-President of the European Commission to add your voice, but this is exactly what Neelie Kroes this week. Your message is short and worth reading in its entirety:

You've probably seen the terrible news of the death of Aaron Swartz. It's always terrible when someone so young and talented clearly feels he has no choice but to take his own life. I know that this is something that rocked the Internet community deeply. And my thoughts are with his family, and what should be the case this time.


He was a man who saw that greater openness can be good for individuals and for society. Extremely worrying - but extremely beneficial.

For me, the case is particularly clear when there are no copyright issues when the information has already been paid for by taxpayers, and when greater openness can help innovations and scientific discoveries.

never condone illegal activities. But in my opinion,

if our laws, frameworks and practices in the way we put all these benefits, then maybe they need to be changed.

Two points are there. Firstly, the information regarding "already paid by taxpayers." This is a clear reference to open access and open data movements that seek to do exactly what kind of material accessible to all. Indeed, the point that stimulates innovation and open scientific Kroes is mentioned not once, but twice in his short message.