Aaron Swartz

How is America suppose to grow if the there are limits to the knowledge that we have access to? Aaron Swartz, the 26 year old who had committed suicide after an extensive and relentless case against him rose because he wanted others to have access to scholarly documents that we should have all been able to read. The author of the article, Aaron Swartz: Opening access to knowledge, Pamela Samuelson, choose to agree with Swartz (from what I presumed). Samuelson lists plenty of good reasons as to why Swartz may have decided to do what he had because the articles that could have been founded through JSTOR were already supplied because of research grants from the government and foundations. Most of the articles were published my the universities professors and we all have an idea as to how much a person with a Ph. D earns. As Samuelson states, maybe Swartz thought that the public was owed access to it. Such a sad way to start the new year when a 26 year old man decided to hang himself because he was only providing the public with knowledge that should be shared with everyone.

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