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Aaron Swartz was treated unjustly because copyright sucks. we should oppose such laws and treatment, not wield them as retributive tools against our opponents

it is wrong to advocate for everyone to be treated equally unjustly. better to advocate for the removal of the bad laws/structures



It would be easier to advocate for the reform of those laws if they were actually applied evenly.

I’m not calling for its use as a “retributive tool”. Just that it be applied evenly.


advocating for more punishment under copyright law is directly opposed to reform or removal of the laws

court precedent is a useful tool of advocacy


Technically he wasn’t charged with any copyright violations. See indictment: https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/217117-united-states...


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Social norms and laws influence each other but often it is norms that change first, then laws change.

Once a technology becomes massively useful and socially normalized, it is our legal systems that adapt around the new reality.

You can make the bet copyright laws won't change in the future but it's one you'd likely lose.

For one, laws would probably be weakened to allow/look the other way for "wanton" training with copyrighted works for one simple reason: governments are unlikely to go for strict copyright maximalism because that would permanently cripple domestic AI development.


> not wield them as retributive tools against our opponents

No, we should apply them equally to Mark Fucking Zuckerberg (which is decidedly not retributive, however much you want to make an emotional appeal) until such time as they are repealed as laws. It’s not really that complicated.




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