Techmeme: After Aaron: how an antiquated law enables the government's war on hackers, activists, and you (Joshua Kopstein/The Verge)

January 19, 2013, 7:25 PM

Top News

Tim Carmody / The Verge:

Wikileaks claims Aaron Swartz was an ally and possible source, breaking anonymity — Unsubstantiated statements implicate US Secret Service in Swartz's prosecution and break Wikileaks' own ‘doxxing’ rules — Aaron Swartz died a week ago. A public memorial service in New York City will be held later today.

More: emptywheel. Tweets: @mathewi, @wikileaks, @tcarmody, @jason_pontin, @dangillmor and @wikileaks. Thanks:@daveying99. See also Mediagazer

Joshua Kopstein / The Verge:

After Aaron: how an antiquated law enables the government's war on hackers, activists, and you — At the center of Aaron Swartz's controversial case is a 1986 anti-hacking law gone horribly wrong — One day back in the early 1970s, two young computer miscreants named Steve Jobs …

More: Guardian, BuzzFeed and LiveScience

Mike Masnick / Techdirt:

Senator John Cornyn Asks Eric Holder To Explain DOJ Prosecution Of Aaron Swartz — While we've seen some politicians in Congress speak out about the prosecution against Aaron Swartz, for the most part, it had been the “usual crew” of folks who had formed the core of the anti-SOPA alliance — Reps. Lofgren, Issa and Polis.

More: TechCrunch, emptywheel, United States Senator …, The Verge, The Huffington Post, Business Insider, Texas on the Potomac, Washington Times, Doc Searls Weblog and The Hill

Orin Kerr / The Volokh Conspiracy:

The Criminal Charges Against Aaron Swartz (Part 2: Prosecutorial Discretion) — This is the second in a series of posts on the Aaron Swartz prosecution. In my first post, I analyzed whether the charges that were brought against Swartz were justified as a matter of law.

More: Gizmodo, Lessig Blog, v2, Techdirt, Jeremiah Grossman, Electronic Frontier Foundation, PC Magazine, Softpedia News and BuzzFeed. Tweets: @mattbuchanan

James Boyle / The Public Domain:

The Prosecution of Aaron: A Response to Orin Kerr

More: Harper's, Techdirt, The Huffington Post and The Volokh Conspiracy. Tweets: @lessig

Eric Limer / Gizmodo:

Kim Dotcom's Mega Is Now Open To the Public — Mega, Kim Dotcom's big, flashy new copyright-dismantling file-sharing/storage site with encryption up the wazoo has finally launched. You can head on over and sign up right now. That is, so long as the site can hold under the crazy traffic.

More: TorrentFreak, Wall Street Journal, Examiner, Ars Technica, CNET, BetaNews, The Verge, The Next Web, The Next Web, Techie Buzz, Mashable!, Softpedia News and hypebot

Tweets: @kimdotcom and @kimdotcom

Chris Keall / Ars Technica:

Building Mega: Ars' pre-launch interview with Kim Dotcom

More: Forbes and Guardian. Tweets: @kimdotcom and @chriskeall

Ernesto / TorrentFreak:

Mega Launches: Brilliantly Secure, But Not Anonymous

More: Android Authority, Neowin, TechCrunch, The Next Web, Engadget, Macgasm, Techie Buzz, Forbes, PC World and SocialTimes

Jordan Golson / MacRumors:

How Steve Jobs Buys a Company and Why Apple Bought Lala — Aubrey Johnson, a former Color employee, shares two stories behind the scenes at Apple's acquisitions of both Color and Lala — both firms were founded by Bill Nguyen before being acquired by Apple for two very different reasons.

More: Aubrey Johnson, ZDNet, Softpedia News, MacNN, TUAW, Business Insider, App Advice, iClarified, iPhone Hacks and iDownloadBlog.com. Tweets: @panzer

The Register:

Orange boasts: We made Google PAY US for traffic — Some packets are more neutral than others ... France Telecom-Orange is making a wad of cash from Google, the company's CEO boasted in an interview with French media yesterday. — Talking to BFM Business TV, CEO Stephane Richard didn't give …

More: The Verge, Beyond Search and Agence France Presse

David Meyer / GigaOM:

Google should be ashamed for paying carriers to handle its traffic — The concept of net neutrality means different things to different people. Some see tiered access pricing for connectivity as the key debate point, while others are more concerned with the idea of content providers having …

Ken Yeung / The Next Web:

“Downloaded”: Napster documentary on Sean Parker and Shawn Fanning premiering at the SXSW Film Festival — The South by Southwest (SXSW) conference has announced that the Napster documentary “Downloaded” will be premiering this March during its Film Festival.

More: AllThingsD, Billboard.Biz, SXSW 2013 and BBC. Tweets: @joshconstine

Drew Olanoff / TechCrunch:

Circa Raises $750K From Group Including Lerer Ventures To Revolutionize Mobile News Delivery — We've learned today that mobile news-delivery company Circa has raised another $750K on top of the $900K raised previously. The company launched its app of the same name, which allows you to follow …

More: App Advice. Thanks:@leenarao

Danny Sullivan / Marketing Land:

Chrome To Gain Search Encryption, Following Similar Moves By Firefox & Mobile Safari — The wave of browsers using Google SSL Search — and thus blocking publishers from receiving search term data — continues. Google's own Chrome browser is next up, with the latest Chrome 25 beta using encryption.

More: Chromium Blog, Ubergizmo, GMANetwork.com, gHacks Technology News, Engadget, Techdows, The Next Web, Search Engine Land and WebProNews

Hamish McKenzie / PandoDaily:

YouTube halts funding for WSJ and Reuters channels; Reuters cuts positions — YouTube has cut off funding to the Wall Street Journal and Reuters that formed part of its $150 million dollar plan to help launch more than 100 premium channels. The termination of the one-year deals …

Tweets: @zenjournalist

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