> Swartz actually did was to download copies of scientific papers

That's the root, but I think what Swartz actually did was anger someone at MIT, who called the Secret Service. The federal involvement persisted even after JSTOR and the state quit, and they had him served on a plate with MIT's help.

You can set a surprising amount of government force in action with a concerned phone call, as it turns out.

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pdonis 3 hours ago | parent [-]

> I think what Swartz actually did was anger someone at MIT, who called the Secret Service.

MIT was concerned that someone (they didn't know who it was at the time--in fact IIRC they didn't find out until the police told them after they caught Swartz) was using their network in a suspicious way. I don't know that anyone was "angered".

> You can set a surprising amount of government force in action with a concerned phone call, as it turns out.

I don't think the people at MIT who called in the police (and they were, IIRC, fairly low level people) had any idea what a shitstorm they were going to unleash. Nor do I think the (higher-level, but still IIRC not at the level of the top MIT administration) people at MIT who ended up interacting with the Federal prosecutor thought through what was actually going on as they should have, or had the issue considered by the MIT administration as a whole as it should have been.

	▲	9x39 3 hours ago \| parent [-]
		MIT evidently added a camera. Later that day, the MIT police made their first contact with him. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aaron_Swartz#United_States_v._... "When it was discovered, a video camera was placed in the room to record Swartz; his computer was left untouched. The recording was stopped once Swartz was identified," IME, months-long internal investigations in an org with Secret Service involvement would be unlikely to escape senior management, but I'm just speculating and only have the same info as everyone else. You might be right.