In his honour, let me try to post a quote in markdown style (one of his many contributions):

Aaron Swartz, Coder and Activist, Dead at 26
Kevin Poulsen
13 Jan 2013

> We often say, upon the passing of a friend or loved one, that the world is a poorer place for the loss. But with the untimely death of programmer and activist Aaron Swartz, this isn’t just a sentiment; it’s literally true. Worthy, important causes will surface without a champion equal to their measure. Technological problems will go unsolved, or be solved a little less brilliantly than they might have been. And that’s just what we know. The world is robbed of a half-century of all the things we can’t even imagine Aaron would have accomplished with the remainder of his life.

http://lessig.tumblr.com/post/40347463044/prosecutor-as-bully – Aaron Swartz, who hacked JSTOR, killed himself yesterday, January 11, 2013.

As a reaction to this post, three senior directors of Elsevier are traveling to University X on Monday October 29 to discuss the University’s relationship with Elsevier and to clear up misunderstandings. Hopefully Elsevier will realize that the continuing governmental savings in the academic sector and the 42% cut in the library budget needs to be respected and must lead to noticeable price reductions. With annual revenue in Elsevier’s “Science & Technology” branch of 1 billion GBP and costs of 50 million GBP, there should be room for price reductions.