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well
they really don't know how to talk about this it's really incredibly
uh... sad
story and uh... depressing and outrageous and
uh...
i think uh... many of you are probably aware
uh... that uh...
over the weekend
parents works
died of suicide
at age twenty six
uh...
i knew error not well the
i met him through um...
a mutual friend the
that he was
producing a
as one of them
many many many things that he was involved in he was
uh... helpings of the to produce a podcast
then we could have done that
i think it's the uh... flaming sort of justice
uh... and uh... so they use their office and uh... we help them out with the
technology
to the extent that they needed
help from us um...
he
you really is an amazing there was an amazing individual who had age fourteen
help develop dar es s
the uh... really simple syndication
soweto protocol
uh... he was one of the
guys who uh... adult reddit gary had a company that got folded into it
founded demand progress he was part of the p triple c
uh... please
was a big part of the uh... stop
sofa soap up
uh...
battle that was waged
i mean this is just a fraction of what he did didn't do his short twenty six
years
uh...
developing architecture for the creative commons
licensing system
ki
was
under intense pressure from the u_s_ government and was facing
a trial the put him in the prison for up to thirty five years
uh... in millions of dollars worth of fines
for
what amounted to
more or less aid trespass
moving
freely available
academic journals into a from more freely available
database
you can read in other places is uh... maybe as the show continues our this
week we will address the specific charges but
uh...
you can read just about anywhere will will will put a series of links of
people
from cory dot roe too
lawrence lessig cajoling greenwald
mats tolar i mean others countless numbers of people
uh... have written about
him and what he was subjected to
one-piece that matt stoller wrote
who was uh...
pretty friendly with him ice rink
diseases really uh...
is an important piece and i want to read it
uh... probably more of it uh... then
but normally would and it's really heartbreaking this whole thing is just
it's just heartbreaking
he was a very sweet guy i didn't know him that well uh... but just from the
time that uh...
you know i spent with him a couple hours in this office in on a lunch for two
uh...
was just a very uh... just incredibly soft spoken
impressive individual
um...
let me read just a little bit from what what matt stole a road in anchorage even
read the whole thing and
to follow the links and uh... because this guy was
was in a very including impressive individual and uh...
it's just hard ricky
uh... masteller road harris works of my friend i'll always miss him i think it's
important that as we remember him
we remember that aran had a much broader agenda than the information freedom
fights
for which he become known most people focused on earth work as an advocate for
more open information systems
because that's what the fed's went after him for
or because he's well understood as a technologist unfounded readin invented
our says
but i knew a different side of him i knew arun is a political activist
interested in health care financial corruption
and the drug war
we were working on a project on that just before he died
he was a great technologist for sure but when we were working together that was
not all i saw
he goes on he was driven by a desire for justice and not just for open
information he wanted to end the drug war he wanted financial system not
they're not dominated by bob rubin
anyone of monetary policy run to help ordinary people
and believed passionately in the scientific method as is guide for
organizing our society in that open minded but powerful critique he was a
technocratic liberal
is leaning sometimes mood him towards a more radical postures because he
recognize that are governing institutions had become malevolent
and but he was not an anarchist
now you should know that uh... he suffered from depression
and um...
solar sights
case statement
from uh...
sports is family and partner
and staff is not simply a personal tragedy is the product of a criminal
justice right for the system rife with intimidation and prosecutorial overreach
decisions made by officials that uh... in the massachusetts u_s_ attorney's
office
and an m_i_t_ contributed to his death
u_s_ attorney's office pursued an exceptionally harsh array of charges
carrying potentially over thirty years in prison
to punish an alleged crime that had no victims
meanwhile unlike j store m_i_t_ refused to stand up for iron in its own
community
communities most cherished principles j story incidentally
dropped charges dropped any civil actions uh... said that they were fine
they had settled essentially with erin
and had uh... released just this month
over four million of those documents
for public uh... access
staller says
i wanna make a few points about why it's not just said that he's gone but a
tragedy a symbol for all of us in a call to action our suffered from depression
but that's not why he died
and is dead because the institutions that govern our society of decided it's
more important to target geniuses like and then that to nurture them
because the values he sought openness justice curiosity
our values these institutions now oppose in previous generations people a karen
would have been treasured and recognizes the remarkable give says they are
we do not live in a world like that today an hour and would be the first the
pointed out
if he could observe the discussion happening now that the pressure he fell
from the oppressive government is felt by millions of people every year
i'm glad his family have not let the justice system off the hook
have not allowed a suicide to be medical ized or the fault of one prosecutor what
happened down is not isolated to arun but it's the flip side of corruption he
hated
what killed him was corruption crowd corruption isn't just people profiting
from brooke betraying the public interest
south of people being punished for upholding the public interest
in our institutions a power when you do the right thing in child abuse of power
you end up destroying a job prospect
and economic opportunity a political or social connection
or an opportunity for media
if you're truly jane jensen brilliant uh... subversive as iron was you are
bankrupt in destroyed
there's a reason whistle blowers get fired there's a reason bradley manning
is in jail there's a reason the only c_i_a_ official is going to jail for
torture is the person janti recap
who told the world the reason that uh...
who told the world that it was going on there's a reason those who destroyed the
financial system
dine at the white house is lawrence lessig politic
there's a reason former senator russ feingold is a college professor whereas
senator chris dodd is now a multimillionaire there's a reason d_l_j_
officials
do not go after bankers who are legally for clothes and then get jobs as
partisan white-collar criminal defense
there's a reason no one has been cut a hole dot held accountable for decisions
leading to the financial crisis
or the war in iraq
this reason is the modern african american society that defines success is
climbing up the ladder
consequences be damned
corrupt self-interest when it goes system wide demands that a protects
ranchers of like uh... from people like aaron
that it intimidate coop to humiliate fire destroyed endure bankrupt those who
stand for justice
and six days on january eighteenth it's the one-year anniversary the blackout of
wikipedia nin some have discussed celebrating it is internet freedom day
maybe we should call this an sorts day in honor of this heroic figure
why what happened that day was technically about the internet it should
be remembered in erin should be remembered in the context of social
justice
that day was ob dot call for a different world not just protecting our ability to
access web sites
we should remember these underlying values
it would help people understand that justice can be extremely costly and that
we risk much when we allow those who do the right thing to be punished
somehow we need to rebuild the culture that respects people i guarantee
and turns away from the greed in rent extraction that he hated
i do know is that if we are donner arens life we'll recognize him as a broad
social justice activists who cared about transforming our society enacted to do
so
and we will take up his fight as our own