Making it possible for the state to open your locks in secret means that anyone who works for the state, or anyone who can bribe or coerce anyone who works for the state, can have the run of your life. By Cory Doctorow.

Fiona Apple

Excerpted from The Idealist by Justin Peters.

White House claims Alisa Shevchenko was involved in hacking the US election but in an interview she says authorities misinterpreted facts or were fooled. By Shaun Walker and Sam Thielman.

Brian Knappenberger

Swartz was brilliant and beloved. But the people who knew the gifted programmer best saw another side. By Larissa MacFarquhar. (Mar. 11, 2013)

A last-ditch effort in the Senate to block or delay rule changes that would expand the U.S. government’s hacking powers failed Wednesday, despite concerns the changes would jeopardize the privacy rights of innocent Americans and risk possible abuse by the incoming administration of President-elect Donald Trump. By Dustin Volz.

As read to the crowd at Aaron Swartz Day, at the Internet Archive, San Francisco, November 5, 2016.

“So the question I put to hackers, cryptographers, security experts, programmers, and so on was this: What’s the best option for people who can’t download new software to their machines? The answer was unanimous: nothing.” By Quinn Norton. (May 20, 2014)

It will go to a person or group engaged in what we believe is excellent disobedience for the benefit of society. The disobedience that we would like to call out is the kind that seeks to change society in a positive way, and is consistent with a set of key principles. The principles include non-violence, creativity, courage, and taking responsibility for one’s actions.

A collection of Swartz’s writings is a record of a mind thinking, beautifully, against itself.  By Ava Kofman. (Feb. 3)

How free-culture pioneer Aaron Swartz fought for the free exchange of information, and lost. By Justin Peters.

Led by vice chancellors, Dutch universities have recently announced plans for a country-wide boycott of the academic publisher Elsevier. Such a boycott has the potential to be a significant game changer in the relationship between the research community and the world’s largest academic publisher. But how will it affect open access momentum in the UK and around the world?

Chelsea Manning reviews “The Boy Who Changed the World: The Writings of Aaron Swartz.”

Next week, the Supreme Court will heard argument in Musacchio v. United States, a case involving the controversial Computer Fraud and Abuse Act. The case is only tangentially related to the hot-button disputes about the CFAA, but it might touch on those issues. By Orin Kerr.

Editors and editorial board quit top linguistics journal to protest subscription fees. By Scott Jaschik.

An interview of Aaron Swartz, the Internet activist who committed suicide, has been released. He warned of internet censorship by private and government actors, months before his legal fight. By Gabriel Rodriguez. (April 30, 2013)

When you live in a totalitarian, controlled and “happy” society, and you want to be a hacker, you have to hack the social system first. Being just an engineer doesn’t cut it, you have to be a hypocrite, dissident and a smuggler at the same time. That’s the motto of my personal story, which starts in Yugoslavia, and ends in Serbia. No, I didn’t move, I’m still in Belgrade, only the political borders have changed... By Voja Antonic.

“I keep my mouth shut now. I’ve turned into a professional coward.” - Hunter S. Thompson in 1967.

In a lawsuit filed by Elsevier, one of the largest academic publishers, Sci-Hub.org is facing millions of dollars in damages. However, the site has no intentions of backing down and will continue its fight to keep access to scientific knowledge free and open.