Reddit cofounder and Internet activist Aaron Swartz committed suicide on Friday in New York City, according to MIT’s newspaper The Tech. The 26-year-old hacker and information specialist had hinted at depression in the past, but his death came as a surprise to those close to him. A statement from Swartz's family Saturday called his death “the product of a criminal justice system rife with intimidation and prosecutorial overreach,” and blamed the tragedy on “decisions made by officials in the Massachusetts U.S. Attorney's Office and at MIT.” Swartz was arrested in July 2011 for attempting to disseminate 4 million academic journals from JSTOR to the wider Internet community, and faced 30 years in prison and $1 million in fines.
