Aaron Swartz’s 2011–2013 JSTOR case
E886849
Aaron Swartz’s 2011–2013 JSTOR case was a high-profile U.S. federal prosecution of programmer and activist Aaron Swartz for bulk-downloading academic articles, which became a flashpoint in debates over open access, computer crime law, and information freedom.
All labels observed (1)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| Aaron Swartz’s 2011–2013 JSTOR case canonical | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T10827539 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Aaron Swartz’s 2011–2013 JSTOR case Context triple: [Guerrilla Open Access, linkedToEvent, Aaron Swartz’s 2011–2013 JSTOR case]
-
A.
The Internet's Own Boy: The Story of Aaron Swartz
The Internet's Own Boy: The Story of Aaron Swartz is a documentary film chronicling the life, activism, and tragic death of programmer and internet freedom advocate Aaron Swartz.
-
B.
Aaron Swartz
Aaron Swartz was an American programmer, writer, and internet activist known for his pioneering work on RSS, Creative Commons, Reddit, and his influential advocacy for open access and digital rights.
-
C.
United States v. Julian Assange
United States v. Julian Assange is a high-profile U.S. criminal case against WikiLeaks’ founder over the publication of classified government documents, raising major debates about press freedom, national security, and whistleblowing.
-
D.
United States v. Edward Snowden
United States v. Edward Snowden is the U.S. criminal case in which former NSA contractor Edward Snowden was charged for leaking classified surveillance documents, leading to international debates over government secrecy and privacy.
-
E.
United States v. Chelsea Manning
United States v. Chelsea Manning was the high-profile court-martial of U.S. Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning for leaking classified documents to WikiLeaks, resulting in a landmark conviction under U.S. military and national security law.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Aaron Swartz’s 2011–2013 JSTOR case Target entity description: Aaron Swartz’s 2011–2013 JSTOR case was a high-profile U.S. federal prosecution of programmer and activist Aaron Swartz for bulk-downloading academic articles, which became a flashpoint in debates over open access, computer crime law, and information freedom.
-
A.
The Internet's Own Boy: The Story of Aaron Swartz
The Internet's Own Boy: The Story of Aaron Swartz is a documentary film chronicling the life, activism, and tragic death of programmer and internet freedom advocate Aaron Swartz.
-
B.
Aaron Swartz
Aaron Swartz was an American programmer, writer, and internet activist known for his pioneering work on RSS, Creative Commons, Reddit, and his influential advocacy for open access and digital rights.
-
C.
United States v. Julian Assange
United States v. Julian Assange is a high-profile U.S. criminal case against WikiLeaks’ founder over the publication of classified government documents, raising major debates about press freedom, national security, and whistleblowing.
-
D.
United States v. Edward Snowden
United States v. Edward Snowden is the U.S. criminal case in which former NSA contractor Edward Snowden was charged for leaking classified surveillance documents, leading to international debates over government secrecy and privacy.
-
E.
United States v. Chelsea Manning
United States v. Chelsea Manning was the high-profile court-martial of U.S. Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning for leaking classified documents to WikiLeaks, resulting in a landmark conviction under U.S. military and national security law.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (48)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
United States federal case
ⓘ
computer crime case ⓘ criminal prosecution ⓘ legal controversy ⓘ |
| accusation |
bulk downloading of academic journal articles
ⓘ
unauthorized access to JSTOR via MIT network ⓘ |
| charge |
computer fraud
ⓘ
recklessly damaging a protected computer ⓘ unlawfully obtaining information from a protected computer ⓘ violations of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act ⓘ wire fraud ⓘ |
| country |
United States of America
ⓘ
surface form:
United States
|
| defendant | Aaron Swartz NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| defendantDeath | 2013-01-11 ⓘ |
| defendantPlea | not guilty ⓘ |
| endedWith | dismissal of charges after defendant’s death ⓘ |
| endTime | 2013 ⓘ |
| hasMainSubject |
computer crime law
ⓘ
information freedom ⓘ open access movement NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| indictmentDate | 2011-07 ⓘ |
| inspired | Aaron’s Law proposal NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| involves |
JSTOR database
NERFINISHED
ⓘ
MIT computer network ⓘ academic journal articles ⓘ |
| jurisdiction |
District of Massachusetts
NERFINISHED
ⓘ
United States government ⓘ
surface form:
United States federal government
|
| location | Cambridge, Massachusetts ⓘ |
| maximumPotentialPenalty |
$1 million in fines
ⓘ
35 years imprisonment ⓘ |
| notableFor |
being a flashpoint in debates over open access
ⓘ
being a high-profile prosecution of a programmer and activist ⓘ raising questions about proportionality of computer crime penalties ⓘ |
| outcome | charges dismissed ⓘ |
| pleaOffer | 6 months in prison in exchange for guilty plea ⓘ |
| prosecutingAuthority |
U.S. Department of Justice
NERFINISHED
ⓘ
United States Attorney’s Office for the District of Massachusetts NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| relatedTo |
Computer Fraud and Abuse Act
NERFINISHED
ⓘ
JSTOR NERFINISHED ⓘ Massachusetts Institute of Technology NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| startTime | 2011 ⓘ |
| subjectOf |
documentaries about Aaron Swartz
ⓘ
extensive media coverage ⓘ |
| supersedingIndictmentDate | 2012-09 ⓘ |
| triggered |
calls to reform the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act
ⓘ
criticism of U.S. computer crime laws ⓘ criticism of prosecutorial discretion in computer crime cases ⓘ public debate on open access to scholarly articles ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: Aaron Swartz’s 2011–2013 JSTOR case Description of subject: Aaron Swartz’s 2011–2013 JSTOR case was a high-profile U.S. federal prosecution of programmer and activist Aaron Swartz for bulk-downloading academic articles, which became a flashpoint in debates over open access, computer crime law, and information freedom.
Referenced by (1)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.