Aaron Swartz Quotes

9 Sourced Quotes

There is no justice in following unjust laws. It's time to come into the light and, in the grand tradition of civil disobedience, declare our opposition to this private theft of public culture.
We need to take information, wherever it is stored, make our copies and share them with the world. We need to take stuff that's out of copyright and add it to the archive. We need to buy secret databases and put them on the Web. We need to download scientific journals and upload them to file sharing networks. We need to fight for Guerilla Open Access.
With enough of us, around the world, we'll not just send a strong message opposing the privatization of knowledge — we'll make it a thing of the past. Will you join us?

Aaron Swartz
Geeks seem a lot more willing to treat people based on what they can do rather than who they are.
This isn't unique to kids, of course. The Internet has an amazingly liberating aspect for everyone from blacks to the blind. So perhaps that's one reason why I'm especially concerned about draconian proposals for an Internet Drivers License or a crackdown on anonymity. Quite aside from the impracticality and ineffectiveness of these proposals, they could have the effect of tagging who people are, and reintroducing those indicators that the Internet has removed.

Aaron Swartz
I'm a teenage kid who's interested in improving the world (mostly through law, politics, and technology).
This year, I'm going to try to update my weblog daily with interesting thoughts, program some interesting new website software, and work on some website projects that help people better understand what's going on in American politics.

Aaron Swartz
Think deeply about things. Don't just go along because that's the way things are or that's what your friends say. Consider the effects, consider the alternatives, but most importantly, just think.

Aaron Swartz
On the one hand, I want to be very open about everything, On the other, I heavily defend people's right to privacy. Of course, as you point out, keeping your privacy is hard because if you slip once, it's out there forever.
I'm not sure what to say to people who want to protect their privacy except, be careful when you give out private information and think about where it could end up.

Aaron Swartz
Information is power. But like all power, there are those who want to keep it for themselves. The world's entire scientific and cultural heritage, published over centuries in books and journals, is increasingly being digitized and locked up by a handful of private corporations. Want to read the papers featuring the most famous results of the sciences? You'll need to send enormous amounts to publishers like Reed Elsevier.
There are those struggling to change this. The Open Access Movement has fought valiantly to ensure that scientists do not sign their copyrights away but instead ensure their work is published on the Internet, under terms that allow anyone to access it.

Aaron Swartz
As the Internet breaks down the last justifications for a professional class of politicians, it also builds up the tools for replacing them.

Aaron Swartz
But all of this action goes on in the dark, hidden underground. It's called stealing or piracy, as if sharing a wealth of knowledge were the moral equivalent of plundering a ship and murdering its crew. But sharing isn't immoral - it's a moral imperative. Only those blinded by greed would refuse to let a friend make a copy.

Aaron Swartz
What is "this drive"? It's the tendency to not simply accept things as they are but to want to think about them, to understand them. To not be content to simply feel sad but to ask what sadness means. To not just get a bus pass but to think about the economic reasons getting a bus pass makes sense. I call this tendency the intellectual.

Aaron Swartz