A reader of Orin’s post would likely miss those complexities. Again, the tie does not go to the accused.
That sums up everything I have a problem with in Orin's discussions about Aaron Swartz: he always sides with the government, whenever there is any doubt at all about the facts, the law, or the case. It's anti-Aaron, all the time, in seemingly every possible way Orin could find (without even considering all of the evidence). It makes no sense. Worse, it's dishonest, as the reader is given a severely distorted view of the facts.
I don't know why Orin chose to do that with Aaron; certainly, in others, he's not been reflexively pro-government as a rule. Maybe he just wanted page views, TMZ-style.
Or perhaps it's because the Computer Fraud issue was finally getting press, even though Orin has labored at it for years (without getting any traction at all)? That would explain why he seems so offended that Aaron's "fame" is why people care about Computer Fraud now.
Still, it's sad to see Orin so blinded by someone with "fame" and "friends". I suspect in the years to come that Orin will regret lashing out at Aaron literally days after his death. It just made Orin look petty, and any "fame" he's gained as a result is certainly the wrong kind of fame.
You make dubious claims in paragraph one, invent motivations in paragraphs two and three, then attack those motivations in paragraph four. Orin is a well known law professor, and he definitely doesn't care about how many page views Eugene Volokh's blog gets.
Orin Kerr's second post is an indictment of the government's entire strategy in prosecuting cases. He's using the fact that Aaron's treatment was a standard application of this strategy to illustrate his issues with it. It sounds like you wanted him to invent some point as grounds to equivocate. Maybe that would make his post be better received in the tech community, but we shouldn't expect legal scholars to be motivated by that concern.
That sums up everything I have a problem with in Orin's discussions about Aaron Swartz: he always sides with the government, whenever there is any doubt at all about the facts, the law, or the case. It's anti-Aaron, all the time, in seemingly every possible way Orin could find (without even considering all of the evidence). It makes no sense. Worse, it's dishonest, as the reader is given a severely distorted view of the facts.
I don't know why Orin chose to do that with Aaron; certainly, in others, he's not been reflexively pro-government as a rule. Maybe he just wanted page views, TMZ-style.
Or perhaps it's because the Computer Fraud issue was finally getting press, even though Orin has labored at it for years (without getting any traction at all)? That would explain why he seems so offended that Aaron's "fame" is why people care about Computer Fraud now.
Still, it's sad to see Orin so blinded by someone with "fame" and "friends". I suspect in the years to come that Orin will regret lashing out at Aaron literally days after his death. It just made Orin look petty, and any "fame" he's gained as a result is certainly the wrong kind of fame.