January 11 2013 was a sad day for the Internet world. That day, Internet pioneer and open information activist Aaron Swartz committed suicide at a young age of 26.
Swartz’s “crime” – he had logged into JSTOR (Journal Storage), a database of scholarly articles, and rapidly downloaded those articles with the intent to make them public.
He didn’t “hack” the network to secure those downloads. MIT is anyways an open network.
He didn’t crack any special password system to get behind JSTOR’s digital walls. All he did was figure out how JSTOR was filing the articles that he wanted and wrote a simple script to quickly gather those articles and then copy them to his computer.
If Swartz had lived to be convicted of the charges against him, he either had to accept the label of a criminal and go to jail for 50 years or fight a million-dollar lawsuit.
Aaron decided to take a third option. He hanged himself!
And with that we have lost an incredible soul, one who had literally spent half of his 26-year-old life doing nothing except working for the public good as far as the Internet and learning are concerned.
It was he who helped develop RSS, revolutionizing how people use the Internet and went on to co-own Reddit, now one of the world’s most popular sites. He was also a key architect of Creative Commons, an organization that helps people share their knowledge and creativity with the world.
It is ironical that the punishment Aaron was supposed to face for downloading academic articles in an effort to make knowledge widely available to the public was harsher than what is accorded in the US to any of these…
- Manslaughter (10 years in prison)
- Bank robbery (20-25 years)
- Selling slaves (20 years)
- Aiding terrorists (20 years)
- Threatening the President (5 years)
In other words, Aaron’s punishment would have been the same if he had robbed a bank, then slaughtered people, and then helped al-Qaeda develop nuclear bombs!
Just downloading and distributing academic papers brought him to face such a severe punishment!
This is in a world where the big corporations (and their top men) have destroyed trillions of dollars in investors’ wealth repeatedly, and have gone away scot-free (and with billions in bonuses)!
Anyways, Aaron’s death and the protests that followed prompted the insanely powerful US government to fix some important flaws in the law regulating the Internet so that others can be protected from legal abuse.
But that won’t bring this genius to life again. It won’t restore his shattered family or bring peace to his bewildered friends.
My Ode to Aaron Swartz
I did not hear much about Aaron Swartz until I heard about his death in 2013. But the stupid reason of Internet privacy that destroyed this precious life pained me enough to uncopyright my blog (not many people read the site that time, so I am repeating what I did back in 2013).
Here’s something I did as my ode to Aaron Swartz, and repeating again today for a much bigger audience.
I “uncopyrighted” my blog, Safal Niveshak.
Come, Use My Free Content for Free
Mark Twain said, “Only one thing is impossible for God: To find any sense in any copyright law on the planet.”
To free God from this impossibility, beginning in 2013, I have released all claims on copyright and put all the free content of Safal Niveshak into the public domain.
You don’t need any permission to use the content of this site in an ethical manner. Just a line of credit is appreciated.
Here are some of the things you can do now with the content I’ve created (and will create) if you so desire:
- All my hand-drawn illustrations are on this page. Please use them freely, but please don’t remove my signature and add yours. 🙂
- All my articles ever written are on this page. Please use excerpts from these as required, and please give credit. Just don’t use the entire article as it is, for Google may get confused for who wrote it originally.
- The above two links contain almost 90% of the work I do, and it’s all free to read and use. If you find any of these worthy to be shared for a wider cause, please share. That would make me feel my effort was worth it.
There is no need to email me for permission — you may use anything free on Safal Niveshak for any educational purpose. A credit would be enough.
People may use my work without attribution (and some have done so in the past). But usually, I have realized that people are grateful and give credit where it’s due anyway, without me requiring it.
Of course, I would not want you to share my paid content freely (I need something to run my house, you see) 🙂
I have seen bloggers take plagiarism very seriously. I have been guilty of doing my bit in the past as well. But then, as I have realized over time, thanks to the time I’ve spent in introspection, all of this content that I write on Safal Niveshak isn’t really mine.
We are living in a world of dreams, and anything here belongs to the dreamer (the ultimate power that runs this Universe), not to the individual projection known as Vishal Khandelwal.
At best I am a translator and a custodian of that dreamer’s work, but I can’t really be an owner, not in the strictest sense.
In Safal Niveshak’s case, the original dreamers also take the form of Warren Buffett, Charlie Munger, and the likes.
So I’m just sharing what I’ve learned from them. How can I claim it as my own?
Also, while Safal Niveshak has started getting a lot of traffic and currently reaches out to over 60,000 tribe members, there are still thousands of small investors who haven’t been exposed to some of the most basic and prudent investing concepts.
So if you can help expose more people to ideas and information that will benefit them, I’ll be immensely thankful to you.
But Please Be Nice with Me
While I’d love when you use my ideas and content and do something creative and generous, please exercise good judgment.
Don’t create headaches for me by doing something sketchy or deceptive.
For example, don’t make it look like I’m recommending or endorsing a stock or a financial product when I didn’t explicitly do so.
Please don’t quote me inaccurately. Please don’t get me a ban from the SEBI.
Mahatma Gandhi said, “Be the change you want to see in the world.”
I like helping people. I like when people remove all barriers to sharing.
By uncopyrighting my free content and ideas, I am trying to do just that – remove all barriers to share my knowledge and ideas freely with the world.
This is something I want to experience as part of my own path of growth, and my wish to let go…to liberate myself.
This is what Aaron Swartz had worked for a large part of his small life. And I could not think of a better way to give my respect to this boy who braved to be a man in a world of cowards.
So come, use any of the free content on Safal Niveshak for the betterment of the world. Just send me some credit. I will appreciate it.
I can’t think of a better tribute to Aaron and many others who are trying to remove all barriers to sharing knowledge and thus making our world brighter and better.
Ultimately, this is what I’ve also learned from Bhagavad Gita –
Whatever has happened, has happened for good.
Whatever is happening, is happening for good.
Whatever will happen, will happen for good.
What did you lose that you are crying?
What did you bring with yourself that you have lost?
What did you give birth to that got destroyed?
Whatever you took, you took from here.
Whatever you gave, you gave here.
What belongs to you today,
Belonged to someone else yesterday,
Will belong to someone else tomorrow.
Change is an established rule of this world.
What do you say?
What are you uncopyrighting?
As always, you are a true inspiration sir !
TRULY AN EYE OPENING AND TOUCHING INITIATIVE…. WHOLE HEARTED APPRECIATION…
You are doing excellent work…helping many small investors using simple language to give powerful messages.
Thank you very much for your generosity. I am learning a lot from reading your blogs.
Dear Vishal,
It’s simply GREAT !
To tell you frankly till today’s morning mail, I had not heard / read any thing about
Aaron Swartz. Really a great soul !
I, to say in few words, really admire your Sincerity, Honesty, the Great Outlook and very much impressed by the same !!
I am now 63 …. So to say in final ( I don’t know how many !) mandatory overs !
But very mush interested in investment any thing related investment or written about investments …..
Wish You All the Best for Future…. Stay Blessed !
Regards,
kiran phalak
Please provide pdfs instead of pdc files…I don’t want to distribute but pdcs do not work on my laptop
Great Step. Vishal
Dear Vishal, My kudos and gratitude for whatever you do. I have been a big beneficiary. Best regards, Rajesh Mukhija
Hi Safal Niveshak,
I am truly inspired by your selflessness.
I own an investing blog – smallcapasia.com myself and i can’t think of a time where i can be so carefree to uncopyright my content, especially when i put in the much time and effort into creating them.
I sincerely respect your decision for the betterment of the world.
Cheers,
James
Thank you very much for your superb kindness sir!
Excellent thought .You are doing a great service to small investors.
Hello Vishal,
I really appreciate your kindness . My love and respect for you has increased even more for your unilateral Initiative.
I will remember to to never delete your signature whenever I use your content and hope that just the Light spreads more
Dear Mr. Vishal,
I am grateful for your wonderful gesture as I am sure to learn from your wisdom as a budding investor. Your action is appreciated more than my expression of gratitude for it.
Thanks,
C. Mohan.
Excellent! Eye opener!
Finally, I am not the only one.
Well done Safal for this article. You are one of the rare bloggers that I read with pleasure their articles. As I said earlier and now, you, the plagiarism is on a high note. Many bloggers do this without hesitation without citing the sources but hey don’t realize that what they say now it has been said a long time ago, just differ the words and views.
I am glad that you started to write about this because I was thinking that I am the only one in this field. When you look on twitter and see all “the big thinkers” in FIRE blogosphere are begging for followers and retweets, makes me sick.
It’s sad that people lost the essence and day by day they get fake. They are not able to think for themselves.
Thank you very much for this article and I hope you to post it everywhere for the lazy people that like copy-paste so much.
I have been in your situation many times.
Fake experts and the worst thing is they have a lot of followers that are lied without their knowledge.
Thank you, again, for your post and email.
I really appreciate it.
You are one of the very few kind of people who have the magnanimity to share for free.
Sir
You will be remembered for the terrific job u r doing to educate the common investors in a layman’s word. Truly amazing Sir. Thnx a ton. U proved that still there r good people in the world 🌍 otherwise how come it still rotates?
Great, I appreciate your openness, i always give credit to the person whom i have learnt from. this your 4 or 5 blog. when ever i use your learning you will definitely get credit.
Truly Vishal you tread the path least taken, and the richness acquired during this journey shows. Thanks a lot for your generosity.
I learn a lot from your articles, reference it from time to time and share it with others too. In just a small way to illuminate the darkness.
God bless your every endeavor
🙏🙏🙏 great Vishal sir.
Wonderful comment. It exactly reflects my thinking. Yes I too belong to the same age group.
First time I have read about Aaron Swartz. What a brave boy he was.
God bless Mr. Vishal.
G. Nadaradjane
Thanks is a small word for your big gesture.
When I first started following SN, I wished it to be in hindi too, to reach a far greater audience and the humble common man. You even started, I remember.
Well, now that I don’t need your explicit permission, I would like to translate the articles whenever I have time. Of course, with all due credit to you, because I am VM not VK.
May HIS blessings be always with you,
Regards,
Vivek Mallik
Hi Vishal,
Thank you very much for sharing these thoughts. These posts makes me more humble and teach me that nothing is permanent in this world and one should show gratitude in every days life to whosoever you can….be more giving and be grounded. Thank you very much for sharing this and enlightening us.
Regards
Lalit Khurana
Vishal! All the hard work shared to make things simpler for others. Bless you. God may endow all blessings to you and ur family
Dear Sir, Its always great to read your articles. They are realistic, eyeopener, and help us think the way we see ourselves in this complex world. Thanks for sharing your experience, wisdom, and shower us with rich learning.
Dear Vishal ji
Thanks for this, these thoughts n action can be taken only by Great Souls like you.
You are truly 1 of the actual great saints of humanity (:
I wont let you down
You might have initiated something which may have a chain reaction. If that happens, people would quote your name after aaron. Thanks for sharing pandora of knowledge.
Vishal ji,
Very Noble Thought and action.
We are indebted
Dear Vishal,
Kudos!!
In a world, where people are so selfish; you are here, sharing your hard work and words. Moreover for free. Great!!
DEAR SIR ITS ALWAYS PLEASURE TO READ YOUR ARTICLES,YOU R DOING A WONDERFUL JOB,GREAT KEET IT UP.
Sir, Hats off to you for a great decision. You are always an inspiration to people.
Great initiative Vishal!
Truly amazing. Thank you for sharing your wisdom and knowledge. I learned many things from your blogs. God bless you!!!
Once again, Thank you.
Huge Respect for your work!
The richest place in terms of knowledge on this earth is the graveyard, people take everything with them without sharing, good job Vishal