On Jan 11, 2013, Aaron Swartz, the 26-year-old internet pioneer and defender of online freedom, tragically took his own life. Aaron was facing 35 years in prison and relentless persecution for downloading too many articles, too fast from an online library of academic journals.

Aaron was treated like a dangerous criminal because the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA) gives absurdly broad powers to corporations and prosecutors to criminalize an array of online activity. That includes, among other things, making the breach of a website's terms of service (the fine print we never read) a potentially serious felony. As members of Congress reconsider the CFAA, we need to speak out now to protect the next Aaron, and all of us, from the CFAA's dangerously broad criminalization of online activity.