Friends and family of Aaron Swartz are holding a public memorial service this weekend to remember the Internet activist, whose suicide last week has opened up a discussion about whether the government is pursuing computer-related crimes with too much vigor.

His memorial service will be held at Cooper Union's Great Hall in New York City from 4-6 p.m. ET. It will feature a number of speakers from the tech community and a musical performance by OK Go's Damian Kush. Cooper Union is located in The Foundation Building at 7 East 7th Street, between Third and Fourth Avenues in Manhattan.

Speakers include: SumOfUs.org founder Taren Stinebrickner-Kauffman, Demand Progress's David Segal, The Cluetrain Manifesto co-author Doc Searls, and data scientist Edward Tufte, among others, according to an announcement.

Those planning to attend can RSVP online. Organizers will live stream the memorial at www.rememberaaronsw.com, and a video of the service will also be posted after the event concludes.

U.S. Attorney Carmen Ortiz this week finally addressed criticism that her office's prosecution of Swartz was unwarranted and played a role in his suicide. Ortiz expressed sympathy to those affected by Swartz's death, but said the government's "conduct was appropriate" in handling the case.

"The career prosecutors handling this matter took on the difficult task of enforcing a law they had taken an oath to uphold, and did so reasonably," the statement said. "At no time did this office ever seek — or ever tell Mr. Swartz's attorneys that it intended to seek — maximum penalties under the law."

Swartz's death came exactly two years after his arrest for allegedly downloading 4.8 million articles from JSTOR, a non-profit archive of academic journals, after tapping into the site from a computer wiring closet at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Swartz argued that the articles he downloaded and shared were part of humanity's collected knowledge that deserved to be shared freely amongst the scientific community.

Swartz was initially charged with four separate felonies, including wire fraud and theft of information from a computer, which was then expanded to a total of 13, after the charges were separated out by date. All told, Swartz could have spent up to 50 years in prison and faced approximately $4 million in fines, if convicted. The feds officially dropped the case this week.

In the wake of his death, Rep. Zoe Lofgren — who represents Silicon Valley — has proposed legislation that would update the Computer Fraud & Abuse Act so that violating terms of service would not carry such hefty sentences.

For more from Angela, follow her on Twitter @amoscaritolo.