Aaron Swartz, Jake Appelbaum, Bradley Manning, Thomas Drake, Jeremy Hammond . . . wanted not only to "liberate information," but to inform the public. Aaron Swartz's suicide has brought these lofty and life-threatening goals into stark relief. These men, some of whom I represent or have worked on their cases, are all the targets of vicious and vindictive federal criminal investigations and prosecutions. They all find themselves in extremis by the crushing weight of the entire Executive Branch. Information is the currency of power, and they've dared to make it available to you, the public, and that makes them not only extremely dangerous, but criminals.
They have paid with the careers, their freedom, their lives.
When I recently attended a renowned hacker convention in Germany--the 29th Chaos Communication Congress (29C3)--I gained an even greater understanding of how hacktivists and whistleblowers share many of the same goals: to free up information, or reveal secret information evidencing illegality, with noble motive and the public interest in mind.