[jeffdavis]

"I guess the problem with us identifying with Bradley Manning in comparison is he didn't do things like contribute to RSS and Markdown."

No, my problem identifying with Manning was that he exposed private communications involving the State Department, which could have consequences for our foreign relations and national security. Swartz was downloading scientific journals, which is an entirely different ballgame.

Very few people believe that State Department communications should be public. So, even if you convince everyone that some injustice was done to Manning because of specific situations that called for whistle-blowing, it does not reveal any general problem in the federal justice system.

With Swartz, I think just telling his story will cause many people to realize how broken the federal justice system is.

[ck2]

There are nearly 5 million people with access to US "top secret" level information.

So I would disagree about how public you think it is just because it's not on the nightly news.

[jeffdavis]

Are there 5 million people with access to that specific top secret information?

My understanding is that you only get access to some top secret information, not the keys to the castle.