Facing 30 years in prison for making information free... ludicrous.

I'm an academic and it infuriates me to no end when I'm doing research and some journal publisher wants to charge me $35 to read an electronic version of a paper--$35 that is almost pure profit for the publisher since the author of the article doesn't see a dime of it and the publisher has already collected publication costs through journal subscription fees.

All of this information should be free to the public. Any minimal costs associated with maintaining servers or customer service agents should either be provided through private donations or government assistance.

JSTOR, to its credit, made part of its database free after this incident. I can't blame them for their pricing--they are a non-profit but are forced by the publishers to pay licensing fees for the articles they host. The publishers are laughing all the way to the bank. I'm sad that Aaron Swartz became a victim of what seems to me to be a clear case of greed.