Orin Kerr Picks the Wrong Moment to Set Up a Straw Man, and Gets Properly Smacked Down by James Boyle
James Boyle:
The Prosecution of Aaron: A Response to Orin Kerr: Orin… expresses both explicit and implicit criticism of the people who are protesting Aaron’s treatment for being overly personalistic, focused on his particular qualities, his famous friends etc — there are repeated mentions of his friendship with Larry Lessig, for example. The implication, it seems clear, is that we should not focus on this one case…. This seems to be a straw man. I see no one saying “let’s only be angry about Aaron Swartz.” Indeed, almost all of the commentaries on Aaron’s death have sought to find in it hints about what we should do better in the future…. It is true, of course, that Aaron’s friends, and there are a lot of them, have also written about Aaron. But one can hardly accuse them of agitating only for their friend. Take Larry Lessig for example. One can agree or disagree with him. But one could hardly accuse him of failing to try to change the world in general, not just for his friends…
