I keep thinking of Aaron Swartz, the 26-year-old computer genius who apparently hanged himself last month. At the time, he was charged with being a cyber thief — downloading scholarly journals available by subscription fee only. Federal officials said he intended to distribute the articles and charged him with 13 felony counts and up to 35 years in prison. There was no allegation that he sought to profit, but rather that, rightly or wrongly, he was acting on the principle that such information should be free to the public.

Whenever I read some new development in the case, I get a feeling I haven’t had in 40 years.

When I was 23, I worked as a reporter for The Rochester Times-Union in upstate New York. This was 1975, and wages were very modest. We had a newsroom union, the Newspaper Guild, but it had no muscle and really, the only way for us to apply even a little bit of pressure on management was moral suasion. We would walk out at lunch and gather in front of the building, where we would hold a news conference describing how we were being mistreated to the two or three Rochester television stations that showed up.

Or we would have a byline strike. Reporters would exercise their right to withhold their bylines, the theory being that readers would notice and be so outraged that the company would be shamed into giving us a raise.

Right.

Anyway, our leadership called a byline strike, but for some reason, when the first edition came out, one of the reporter’s names remained on his story. A Guild officer came to me, explaining that this reporter had requested to have it removed, was ignored and would like to have it taken off for the later editions.