MIT asserts “no wrongdoing” in Aaron Swartz case

The long-awaited Massachusetts Institute of Technology review of its processes and procedures up to and after Aaron Swartz’s suicide is out.

The 180-page report spearheaded by MIT Professor Hal Abelson was authorized by MIT President Rafael Reif in January. An initial glance shows that the report found no wrongdoing on the part of the university or its employees. Abelson said the report is not edited and that MIT officials had no advance knowledge of the report The report seeks to distance MIT itself from Swartz’s federal persecution. The school called in Cambridge police when it found out about the massive downloads and did not know Swartz was involved. Moreover, the school did not ask that federal charges be brought, and was not consulted about appropriate charges. Nor was MIT involved in plea negotiations and adopted a “position of neutrality” over the case, refusing to issue public statements. But MIT did not consider factors including “that the defendant was an accomplished and well-known contributor to Internet technology”; that the law under which he was charged “is a poorly drafted and questionable criminal law as applied to modern computing”; and that “the United States was pursuing an overtly aggressive prosecution.” While MIT’s position “may have been prudent,” the report says, “it did not duly take into account the wider background” of policy issues “in which MIT people have traditionally been passionate leaders.”