Remembering Digital Activist Aaron Swartz

Open-access activists are paying tribute to Aaron H. Swartz, a 26-year-old Internet prodigy and computer hacker who was found dead in his New York City apartment on Jan. 11 from an apparent suicide. Swartz was facing federal charges of up to 35 years in prison and more than $1 million in fines for stealing millions of journal articles from a database hosted by MIT. Although Swartz suffered from serious depression, many people, including his family, are blaming his death on overly harsh charges and intimidation by the U.S. justice system. As a tribute to Swartz, open-access activists have started a movement using the hashtag #pdftribute on the social media site Twitter to encourage more researchers to publish their work in open-access journals.