The academic journal repository JSTOR, whose archives Aaron Swartz was under federal indictment for allegedly breaching when he committed suicide yesterday, released a supportive and laudatory statement on his death this evening. In a strange and somehow beautiful irony, the traffic to that statement crashed their servers.
Here it is, via Hacker News.
We are deeply saddened to hear the news about Aaron Swartz. We extend our heartfelt condolences to Aaron’s family, friends, and everyone who loved, knew, and admired him. He was a truly gifted person who made important contributions to the development of the internet and the web from which we all benefit.
We have had inquiries about JSTOR’s view of this sad event given the charges against Aaron and the trial scheduled for April. The case is one that we ourselves had regretted being drawn into from the outset, since JSTOR’s mission is to foster widespread access to the world’s body of scholarly knowledge. At the same time, as one of the largest archives of scholarly literature in the world, we must be