• @[email protected]
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    10 months ago

    Wait. Back up.

    I haven’t been embroiled in the drama that is Reddit and it’s founding… But the “c-level” guy that was basically the free speech advocate of the admin team… Died?

    This explains a lot actually.

    • noobg
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      8210 months ago

      He hung himself after being prosecuted by the federal authorities for academic journal article piracy. He was trying to make journal articles available to the masses and was facing life in prison for it. This was many years ago.

      • DreamButt
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        2510 months ago

        What a world we live in

        • @Earthwormjim91
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          -810 months ago

          He also defended child porn and advocated for making it legal.

          Maybe don’t idolize people.

          • noobg
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            110 months ago

            Wasn’t he like 16 years old when he posted that? I certainly said some pretty stupid stuff when I was that age.

            • @Earthwormjim91
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              110 months ago

              There’s saying stupid things as a teenager, and then there’s defending child porn.

              I’ve said a lot of stupid stuff as a teenager too but never felt like saying child porn should be legal or that it wasn’t abuse. That’s something that you should know by 16.

      • @[email protected]
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        610 months ago

        He died for what he believed in, I suppose. I wonder if Richard Stallman had any comment on it, since he’s kind of the OG digital freedom of information guy.

        • @[email protected]
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          210 months ago

          You could email him and ask. I’ve heard he answers a lot of the emails random people send

          • @[email protected]
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            210 months ago

            I could. I’m sure he’s doing far more important work for the freedom of information, I wouldn’t want to distract him from that important work.

            Also I’m sure I could come up with something far more interesting to ask if I did.

    • @notatoad
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      10 months ago

      he died in 2013. his involvement with reddit ended officially in 2007, but even by his own admission he stopped any involvement with the company when it was acquired by conde nast - he was part of reddit for less than a year.

      his death really doesn’t have anything to do with reddit’s current trajectory

      • @[email protected]
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        310 months ago

        That’s good to know; even if he hadn’t died; he still wouldn’t have had anything to do with it. May he rest in peace.

      • @[email protected]
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        110 months ago

        I guarantee to you that there is not a SINGLE researcher that doesn’t use scihub to get articles. This is so fucking unfair, I had no idea his death was due to this