caption website death_date death_place birth_place awards title name parents birth_date alt image article_title birth_name occupation death_cause
aaron 13 , 2008 swartz at a creative commons event on december -lsb- http://www.aaronsw.com/ aaronsw.com -rsb- -lsb- http://www.rememberaaronsw.com/ rememberaaronsw.com -rsb- 11 january 2013 brooklyn , new york , u.s. chicago , illinois , u.s. american posthumously -rrb- '' eff pioneer award 2013 '' -lrb- posthumously library -rrb- '' association 's james madison award '' -lrb- fellow ethics , harvard university edmond j. safra center for aaron swartz robert -rrb- swartz -lrb- father -rrb- susan swartz -lrb- mother 8 november 1986 swartz smiling aaron swartz profile.jpg aaron swartz
 aaron h. swartz software developer , writer , internet activist suicide by hanging
aaron swartz

aaron hillel swartz -lrb- november 8 , 1986 -- january 11 , 2013 -rrb- was an american computer programmer , entrepreneur , writer , political organizer and internet hacktivist who was involved in the development of the web feed format rss and the markdown publishing format , the organization creative commons , the website framework web.py and the social news site , reddit , in which he became a partner after its merger with his company , infogami .
he committed suicide while under federal indictment for data-theft , a prosecution that was characterized by his family as being `` the product of a criminal-justice system rife with intimidation and prosecutorial overreach '' .
swartz 's work also focused on civic awareness and activism .
he helped launch the progressive change campaign committee in 2009 to learn more about effective online activism .
in 2010 , he became a research fellow at harvard university 's safra research lab on institutional corruption , directed by lawrence lessig .
he founded the online group demand progress , known for its campaign against the stop online piracy act .
on january 6 , 2011 , swartz was arrested by mit police on state breaking-and-entering charges , after surreptitiously installing a computer in an institute closet which he set to systematically download academic journal articles from jstor .
federal prosecutors later charged him with two counts of wire fraud and eleven violations of the computer fraud and abuse act , carrying a cumulative maximum penalty of $ 1 million in fines , 35 years in prison , asset forfeiture , restitution , and supervised release .
swartz declined a plea bargain under which he would have served six months in federal prison .
two days after the prosecution rejected a counter-offer by swartz , he was found dead in his brooklyn apartment , where he had hanged himself .
in june 2013 , swartz was posthumously inducted into the internet hall of fame .
