Friend and Harvard law professor Lawrence Lessig, later described how the persecution had driven Swartz to the edge.
"When he saw all of his wealth gone and he recognized his parents were going to have to mortgage their house, so he can afford a lawyer to fight a government that treated him as if he were a 9/11 terrorist, as if what he was doing was threatening the infrastructure of the United States. When he saw that and he recognized how incredibly difficult that fight was going to be, of course he was depressed."
#TheDayWeFightBack so far: Petition signatures: 125,412 Congress Calls placed: 22,256 Emails sent: 62,304 Join us: http:// thedaywefightback.org
Civil liberties advocates are now pushing for Congress to reform the anti-hacking law the government used to pursue Swartz.
Parker Higgins from the Electronic Frontier Foundation believes there's still a lot to be done before politicians realize such relentless persecution is unacceptable.
"Unfortunately the government hasn't changed its perception here," Higgins told RT. "There was a proposal last year in the US legislature called 'Aaron's law' that would address some of the biggest concerns that we have. But Aaron's law still hasn't advanced to the point where it's passed or can be signed. In fact we've seen proposals to make our computer crime laws even harsher. And that's something we need to keep working on until politicians who don't have a great grasp of how technology works understand that this kind of persecution is unacceptable."
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