In late 2010 and early 2011, Aaron Swartz used MIT’s network and a JSTOR account to download a large volume of academic articles. JSTOR records cited more than 200,000 download sessions in one hour at the peak, while later accounts estimated that Swartz obtained about 2.7 million documents. MIT police arrested him on January 6, 2011, after finding a laptop connected in an unlocked wiring closet. JSTOR settled with Swartz in June 2011, and he surrendered the downloaded data; the organization later released 300 partially redacted case documents in July 2013.
Federal prosecutors led by U.S. Attorney Carmen Ortiz initially charged Swartz with four felonies in July 2011, then filed a superseding indictment on September 12, 2012, adding nine counts. The charges exposed him to a claimed maximum of 50 years in prison and $1 million in fines, while prosecutors offered to recommend six months in a low-security prison if he pleaded guilty to 13 crimes. Critics including former Nixon White House counsel John Dean called the case overcharged and overzealous. Swartz rejected the plea offer and died by suicide on January 11, 2013; prosecutors dropped the federal charges afterward. The case intensified debate over the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, prosecutorial discretion, and whether terms-of-service or network-access disputes should produce decades-long criminal exposure.
