MIT releases its report. It's a whitewash.

[Ben Wikler]

Report here. Admits no wrongdoing. It's a whitewash: MIT cooperated closely with the prosecution and stonewalled the defense, throughout the case. And yet the report claims MIT was neutral. 

If you need extra evidence that this is report was intended to cover MIT's ass: despite being asked directly by Aaron's family and partner if they could review it in advance, MIT's press office released it directly to reporters so that they could win early coverage without criticism.

http://swartz-report.mit.edu/docs/report-to-the-president.pdf

The Boston Globe @BostonGlobe14m

BREAKING NEWS: MIT says review finds no wrongdoing, but raises concerns about policies and procedures in handling of Aaron Swartz case

Steven Bognar @BogsWBZ2m

JUST IN: #MIT review of Aaron Swartz case: "We have not found a silver bullet with which MIT could have simply prevented the tragedy.” #wbz

[Brian Guthrie]

They claim that statements to the prosecutor would have been counterproductive, which I don't buy. IV.B.3:

As with the possibility of a public statement on the charges, considerations that went into 
the decisions to remain neutral in private statements at these times included judgments 
about whether such statements would be helpful to Aaron Swartz. Given the lead 
prosecutor’s comments to MIT’s outside counsel (see section III.C.3), MIT statements 
would seemingly have had little impact, and even risk making matters worse—although 
this information was not shared with Swartz’s advocates.

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[Bettina Neuefeind]

Thanks for flagging this, Ben; am thinking of you all today.

This inexcusable passivity, to my mind, is quite reprehensible enough in and of itself:

MIT took the position that U.S. v. Swartz was simply a lawsuit to which it was not a party, 

although it did inform the U.S. Attorney’s Office that the prosecution should 

not be under the impression that MIT wanted jail time for Aaron Swartz. (MIT

did not say it was actually opposed to jail time.) Among the factors not

considered were that the defendant was an accomplished and well-known 

contributor to Internet technology; that the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act is 

a poorly drafted and questionable criminal law as applied to modern 

computing, one that affects the Internet community as a whole and is widely 

criticized; and that the United States government was pursuing an overtly 

aggressive prosecution. MIT’s position may have been prudent, but it did not 

duly take into account the wider background of information policy against 

which the prosecution played out and in which MIT people have traditionally 

been passionate leaders.

Bettina Neuefeind

Research Fellow, Harvard Law School

bet...@pobox.com

650.714.5196

[Henry Farrell]

What are the prospects of actually getting the documents that MIT is pushing to keep out of the legal record, so that we can evaluate the hypocrisy more specifically?

On Tue, Jul 30, 2013 at 11:53 AM, Bettina Neuefeind <bet...@pobox.com> wrote:

Thanks for flagging this, Ben; am thinking of you all today.

This inexcusable passivity, to my mind, is quite reprehensible enough in and of itself:

MIT took the position that U.S. v. Swartz was simply a lawsuit to which it was not a party, 

although it did inform the U.S. Attorney’s Office that the prosecution should 

not be under the impression that MIT wanted jail time for Aaron Swartz. (MIT

did not say it was actually opposed to jail time.) Among the factors not

considered were that the defendant was an accomplished and well-known 

contributor to Internet technology; that the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act is 

a poorly drafted and questionable criminal law as applied to modern 

computing, one that affects the Internet community as a whole and is widely 

criticized; and that the United States government w

--
-----------------------------------
Our quarrels with the world are like our quarrels with God: no matter how right we are, we are wrong. But who wants to be right all the time?
Randall Jarrell
-----------------------------------
Henry Farrell
Associate Professor
Department of Political Science/Elliott School of International Affairs
George Washington University
http://www.henryfarrell.net

[Kelsey Kauffman]

preliminary comments by Larry Lessig:  http://lessig.tumblr.com/post/56881544082/the-mit-report-on-aaronsw

Boing Boing: http://boingboing.net/2013/07/30/mit-report-on-aaron-swartzs.html

--

[Bettina Neuefeind]

I wish I knew.

[Matt Stoller]

More from Lessig: http://lessig.tumblr.com/post/56888930628/on-the-emptiness-in-the-concept-of-neutrality

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Matt Stoller

[Quinn Norton]

fwiw, i recorded my side of the interview with MIT, i released it on my
blog the other day. i kind of wish i'd gotten other people to do the
same. or take notes, or something.

http://www.quinnnorton.com/said/?p=774

i am hoping to annotate it as i get the time with the questions as i
recall them. you can see the shape of them in my answers though, and the
place where abelson said he might quote me, though he ultimately didn't.

the blank bits are my personal information.

[Taren Stinebrickner-Kauffman]

Charlie took a transcript of my interview in person in real-time. If for some reason it'd be helpful to post or circulate it as well, we probably could.

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This is my personal email address. If you are emailing me about SumOfUs-related matters, please email me at ta...@sumofus.org.

Taren Stinebrickner-Kauffman

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