MIT to release documents about activist Swartz

The president of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology announced Tuesday that the school will voluntarily release public documents related to the prosecution of free-information activist Aaron Swartz, who hanged himself in January as he faced trial on hacking charges.The email announcement by MIT President L. Rafael Reif comes in response to a request Friday by lawyers for Swartz's estate to have the U.S. District Court in Boston make the documents public.The university has come under fire for what critics say is MIT's compliance with federal prosecutors in the legal case against Swartz.Supporters of Swartz have painted him a zealous advocate of public online access, a martyred hero hounded to his death by the government he antagonized.To prosecutors, the 26-year-old Swartz was a thief whose aims to make information available didn't excuse the illegal acts he was charged with: breaking into a wiring closet at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and tapping into its computer network to download millions of paid-access scholarly articles, which he planned to share publicly.He was facing possibly decades in prison after being indicted in Boston in 2011 when he hanged himself in his Brooklyn, N.Y., apartment.

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