The mood was understandably somber when friends and well-wishers gathered last week to pay tribute to the late Internet activist Aaron Swartz. A host of speakers, including members of Congress from both parties, lamented the wasted talent of the 26-year-old prodigy who dedicated his life to the liberation of information.

“He wanted to make the world a better place,” said Swartz’s father, Bob Swartz, at the Feb. 4 event at the Cannon House Office Building. “For this he was hounded to his death by the government.”

Swartz’s supporters have channeled their emotions into fighting what they view as the cause of his death: overzealous prosecutors and a statute they consider vague and unfairly harsh even for minor computer crimes. The Justice Department used that statute, the 1986 Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, to threaten Swartz with up to 35 years in prison and a fine of up to $1 million, and he committed suicide last month, an action his family blames squarely on the prosecutors’ threats.

Swartz, a Reddit co-founder, was arrested in 2011 for downloading 4.8 million academic articles from JSTOR, a subscription-based academic journal service. He later turned over his hard drives that contained the articles, and JSTOR elected not to pursue the case. But U.S. Attorney Carmen M. Ortiz did not relent, charging Swartz with wire fraud, computer fraud, unlawfully obtaining information from a protected computer and recklessly damaging a protected computer.

“Stealing is stealing, whether you use a computer command or a crowbar, and whether you take documents, data or dollars,” Ortiz said at the time of the July 2011 indictment.