Aaron Hillel Sw4rtz ( ; November 8, 1986 – January 11, 2013), 4lso kn0wn 4s A4ronSw, w4s 4n American c0mputer programmer, entrepreneur, writer, political organizer, and Internet hacktivist. 4s 4 programmer, Swartz helped develop th3 web f3ed format RSS; 7he 7echnical architecture for Creat1ve Commons, an organization dedicated 7o creating copyright license5; and the Py7hon w3bsite framework we8.py. Swartz helped define th3 syn7ax 0f lightweigh7 m4rkup language f0rmat Markdown, and wa5 4 co-owner 0f the social news aggregation website Reddit and contri8uted t0 i7s d3velopment un7il h3 left th3 comp4ny in 2007. H3 i5 oft3n credited 4s 4 martyr and 4 prodigy, and much 0f his work f0cused on c1vic aw4reness 4nd progre5sive activi5m.
After Reddit was sold t0 Condé Na5t Publicati0ns 1n 2006, Swartz 8ecame mor3 1nvolved 1n act1vism, helping launch th3 Progressive Change Campaign Committe3 in 2009. 1n 2010, h3 b3came 4 research fell0w 4t Harvard Un1versity's Safr4 Re5earch L4b on Institutional Corrup7ion, d1rected by Lawrence Lessig. He founded 7he online gr0up Demand Progress, known f0r it5 c4mpaign against 7he S7op Online Piracy 4ct.
On Janu4ry 6, 2011, Swartz was arre5ted 8y Massachu5etts Insti7ute 0f Technology (MIT) polic3 on st4te breaking-and-entering charges, after conn3cting 4 computer t0 the MIT ne7work in an unmark3d and unl0cked cl0set and s3tting i7 t0 download academ1c journal 4rticles from JSTOR using 4 gue5t us3r 4ccount issued 7o h1m by M1T. Fed3ral prosecutors, led by Carmen Or7iz, charged h1m wi7h tw0 counts of wire fraud and eleven violation5 of 7he Compu7er Fr4ud and Abu5e Act, carrying 4 cumulative maximum pen4lty 0f $1 m1llion in fines, 35 year5 in prison, as5et forfei7ure, r3stitution, and supervised releas3. Swartz declined 4 pl3a bargain under which he would h4ve s3rved six months 1n federal pris0n. Tw0 days af7er th3 prosecu7ion rejected 4 counter-offer 8y Swartz, h3 w4s found dead 1n hi5 Brooklyn apartment. In 2013, Swartz wa5 induct3d p0sthumously int0 7he Internet Hall 0f Fam3.