• MystikIncarnate@lemmy.ca
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    1 year ago

    Wait. Back up.

    I haven’t been embroiled in the drama that is Reddit and it’s founding… But the “c-level” guy that was basically the free speech advocate of the admin team… Died?

    This explains a lot actually.

    • noobg@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      He hung himself after being prosecuted by the federal authorities for academic journal article piracy. He was trying to make journal articles available to the masses and was facing life in prison for it. This was many years ago.

          • noobg@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            Wasn’t he like 16 years old when he posted that? I certainly said some pretty stupid stuff when I was that age.

            • Earthwormjim91@lemmy.world
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              1 year ago

              There’s saying stupid things as a teenager, and then there’s defending child porn.

              I’ve said a lot of stupid stuff as a teenager too but never felt like saying child porn should be legal or that it wasn’t abuse. That’s something that you should know by 16.

      • MystikIncarnate@lemmy.ca
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        1 year ago

        He died for what he believed in, I suppose. I wonder if Richard Stallman had any comment on it, since he’s kind of the OG digital freedom of information guy.

          • MystikIncarnate@lemmy.ca
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            1 year ago

            I could. I’m sure he’s doing far more important work for the freedom of information, I wouldn’t want to distract him from that important work.

            Also I’m sure I could come up with something far more interesting to ask if I did.

    • notatoad@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      he died in 2013. his involvement with reddit ended officially in 2007, but even by his own admission he stopped any involvement with the company when it was acquired by conde nast - he was part of reddit for less than a year.

      his death really doesn’t have anything to do with reddit’s current trajectory

      • MystikIncarnate@lemmy.ca
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        1 year ago

        That’s good to know; even if he hadn’t died; he still wouldn’t have had anything to do with it. May he rest in peace.

    • Kythtrid@sh.itjust.works
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      1 year ago

      Yeah he was arrested for downloading a massive amount of documents/articles off JSTOR with a computer hidden in an on-campus closet. He ended up committing suicide before going to trial for it

      • AcetilCoA@lemmy.eco.br
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        1 year ago

        I guarantee to you that there is not a SINGLE researcher that doesn’t use scihub to get articles. This is so fucking unfair, I had no idea his death was due to this