I have no special love for Russian oligarchs. But that word 'oligarch,' as used by the media is not that different than just meaning a really rich dude. And there's currently an apparent wholesale agreement that because Putin did something wrong, it's ok to take things that belong to other rich people of Russia too even if they have not particularly supported the ukraine invasion. People are not even really asking the question of if it is right or how far it should go: https://www.yahoo.com/news/germany-seized-worlds-largest-mega-015251295.html It's more like yeah, lets punish all them rich Russians!!! By calling them 'oligarchs' it's IMO an attempt to set them apart from other rich people. My concern is mostly just that I see this is an early step in a path to normalizing govts taking away all your stuff if you do not comply with the current narrative. First it was Canada seizing bank accounts and trucks, now apparently rich russians are free game too. And you can pretty much bet it won't stop there though, this is a very slippery slope.

So the story goes that Aaron Swartz, one of 3 cofounders of reddit, bastion of the defense of free speech, the existence of whom reddit has censored from their official history, in 2011 attempted to download a more than the TOS allowed number of journal articles from JSTOR. He was caught and JSTOR demanded the return of the articles and a promise not to redistribute them etc. Aaron agreed and JSTOR was satisfied and did not want to prosecute saying they suffered no damages or losses, which should have been the end of the issue.

Except the Massachusetts US Attorney’s office decided to file a case themselves against Aaron with a laundry list of hacking crime accusations that would have amounted to 35 years in prison and a 1 million dollar fine, which is basically ridiculous. Murderers get less time! HOwever many felt Aaron could have won that case by arguing his actions did not constitute a violation of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act because JSTOR allowed people to download journal articles anyway, Aaron had only breached the TOS by downloading more than allowed. A breach of TOS does not automatically constitute a crime. Article about that story here: https://www.rt.com/news/aaron-swartz-suicide-reddit-858/

So he might have won that case, but instead when he was alone in his apartment, they say he hanged himself. I feel this whole story is suspicious. I have not heard any evidence he was suicidal. And the charges on him were clearly way over the top. Could it be he planned to fight the accusations and still fight for freedoms so they finally decided to kill him?