Just a few months ago, the tech world was astounded by the bizarre story of John McAfee, the founder of McAfee Anti-Virus, who after living for years in Belize was wanted in connection with the murder of one of his neighbors. It wasn’t long before the story’s weird factor was ratcheted up to ten by rumors that McAfee had been experimenting (in a quasi-professional sense) with drugs, including the zombifying phenomenon known as “bath salts.”
Now, just a week or so ago, Aaron Swartz, co-founder of Reddit and Internet activist, took his own life after what is now being described as a long-term battle with depression. Many, however, are stating the real impetus behind Swartz’s tragic end were the criminal charges he faced for hacking into and downloading a massive amount of articles from JSTOR, a scholarly article database. Some have implied that Swartz was being targeted because of firmly held belief that information on the Internet should be freely accessible.
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