I woke this morning to the terrible, terrible news that Aaron Swartz has committed suicide. He was one of the early friends and boosters of the Monkey Cage, an utterly decent and brilliant young man, who seemed possessed of endless energy for a variety of good causes. He was under indictment from the Department of Justice for having downloaded millions of JSTOR articles in breach of terms of service, a crime for which they proposed to sentence him to decades of prison time. He will be missed.
