When I read on reddit today of the death of Aason Swartz, I was immediately filled with a noxious mix of despair and anger. Now let me be clear: I didn’t know Aaron; I wasn’t his friend or family, we weren’t on the same mailing lists, we’d never met. He was a stranger to me, but as I read about Aaron’s background and of the utterly absurd, indefensible and vile charges brought against him, I knew that his death lays at the bloody hands of those agencies which seek to monitor, control (and charge for) our freedom of speech.
It is only by coincidence that I recently learned from an unrelated podcast that the song “Happy Birthday To You” is not in the public domain and the charge (at least to the director(s) in the story who wished to have a tv actress sing it, Marilyn Monroe-style in one brief scene) was $20,000.
Aaron Swartz was looking at 30 years in prison for the charges against him in Massachusetts. I’ll say it now: These charges were part of a witch hunt by the US government to silence a man who was very involved in the protest against SOPA.
This is all about control, folks. This is America: It’s not a country. It’s just a business. Don’t fear the military industrial complex…it was sold (cheap) in the early 2000’s by the presidential shrubbery. This is very much about about gigantic media conglomerates that wish to control us by limiting or outright preventing our free speech. This isn’t about revenue; it’s about control.
Aaron Swartz was looking at 30 years in prison. The “physician” who killed Michael Jackson was looking at four years. It’s information like that – not to mention $20,000 to sing “Happy Birthday” on television – that makes you realize just how corrupt the world really is.
Michael Profit 