Aaron Swartz Prosecutor’s Office: Case Was ‘Reasonably Handled’

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A spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney for the District of Massachusetts, Carmen Ortiz, released a statement published by the Boston Herald on Monday stating that the attorney’s prosecution of late Internet activist Aaron Swartz over his unauthorized access and download of 4.8 million academic articles from subscription database JSTOR was “reasonably handled and we would not have done things differently.”

The statement comes just over a week after Swartz, 26, was found dead in his New York City apartment after taking his own life. Swartz’s family and friends, as well as numerous other Web programmers and activists, have accused Ortiz and federal prosecutors of being “overzealous” in their prosecution of Swartz. All charges were dropped shortly after Swartz’s death. A memorial service honoring Swartz was held in New York on Saturday.

(H/T: Declan McCullagh.) 

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