&gt;  It amazes me what our justice system can do to people and not be held responsible.<p>Just to play devil&#x27;s advocate here (and I understand this goes against prevailing opinion), but he <i>did</i> break the law. That much isn&#x27;t in dispute, they had a video of him entering the MIT network closet. And he didn&#x27;t commit misdemeanors, he committed a half dozen felonies (actually more, but the prosecution dropped a few of them).<p>The prosecution was offering a meager 6 months in a low-security prison (for multiple felonies, that&#x27;s peanuts) for his crimes but he rejected the offer (source: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Aaron_Swartz#Arrest_and_prosecution" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Aaron_Swartz#Arrest_and_prosec...</a>).<p>I understand what he was fighting for and agree with him and his ideology. I support Open Access, but let&#x27;s not kid ourselves or delude ourselves - he wasn&#x27;t innocent. He <i>did</i> commit crimes. I don&#x27;t think this is the justice&#x27;s systems fault. They were going to go extremely light on him but it was <i>he</i> who chose to fight.