Aaron Swartz

Aaron Swartz was a prominent computer programmer, internet activist, and co-founder of Reddit. Born in 1986, he was a prodigy who contributed to projects like the RSS web feed format and the Creative Commons organization. Swartz advocated for open access to information, believing that knowledge should be freely available to everyone. In 2011, he was arrested for downloading a large number of academic articles from JSTOR, facing severe legal consequences. Tragically, he died by suicide in 2013, which sparked discussions about mental health and the ethics of prosecution in the digital age. His legacy continues to influence the open access movement.