Articles

Hacker Sets Up Hidden Canadian Pharma Pages on WordPress

by Mark Runyon • July 4, 2015

A client contacted me this afternoon saying that Google was showing that their website had been hacked underneath their search result. This was odd to say the least. New clients will occasionally call us to help clean up a website that has already been hacked, but this was the first time we’ve had one on […]


Tara Clifford’s Copyright, Free Speech and the Digital Age Essay

by Mark Runyon • May 21, 2015

Copyright, as defined by the United States Constitution is “to promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts”. Progress. Not monetary gain, not exclusive holding rights. No, to promote progress. Progress was an idea that Aaron Swartz committed his life to. He realized that current copyright law no longer held the essence nor upheld the […]


Erika Nilsson’s Aaron Swartz Scholarship Essay

by Mark Runyon • May 21, 2015

When I was little, my brother got in trouble for sharing some sensitive information about a fellow student in class. This student was, in fact, cheating on one of the tests and because this exam was weighted, the cheater could have ruined everyone’s grades while propping up his own. My brother thought that he would […]


Blake Echt’s Aaron Swartz Scholarship Essay

by Mark Runyon • May 21, 2015

In regards to ethics, there are two general theories that can be used to discuss the implications of an action, Deontological and Utilitarian ethics: the former is a series of ethical guidelines that override the popular choice (for example, even though the majority would benefit from an unethical action, the right thing to do is […]


Tyrece Simas Aaron Swartz Scholarship Essay

by Mark Runyon • May 21, 2015

“Freedom of speech means freedom for those who you despise, and freedom to express the most despicable views. It also means that the government cannot pick and choose which expressions to authorize and which to prevent” – Alan Dershowitz In many cases, questioning or even challenging a political figure can lead to self-governing values. Over […]


Alyssa Hall’s Hacktivism vs. Distractism Essay

by Mark Runyon • May 21, 2015

The debate over whether or not a certain type of hacking is ethical has been a subject of interest for many years. When one thinks of hacking they automatically think of a suspicious character in a dark room pounding at a keyboard, eyes wide and with a mad scientist laugh. Most people assume that all […]


Robert Paul’s Aaron Swartz Scholarship Essay

by Mark Runyon • May 21, 2015

I think that in both the cases of the PACER documents and the JSTOR documents Swartz was right to release to the public the information that he obtained. The effects of what he did in the first case of PACER is immediately obvious: change occurred and the court systems were forced to amend their policies […]


Paige Clayton’s Aaron Swartz Scholarship Essay

by Mark Runyon • May 21, 2015

The act of protesting is nothing new in our day and age. Protesting has been used for thousands of years to effect change in unfair parts of society – whether it be political, social, economic, etc. Through the years the world has been witness to the various forms of protesting: mass, public-led marches, picket-fence protesting, […]


Michael Howard’s Aaron Swartz Scholarship Entry

by Mark Runyon • May 21, 2015

In the case of Aaron Swartz, I believe that it was ethical for him to breach MIT’s systems. As a college student and a scientist, I believe that scientific and literary journals should be accessible to all people and not just a select few who can pay for them, which is why I think it […]


Justin Camden’s Aaron Swartz Scholarship Entry

by Mark Runyon • May 21, 2015

Aaron Swartz was prosecuted for a crime that not only would he have been justified in committing, but also that he did not actually commit. Furthermore, the Justice Department knew that Swartz was no criminal, yet it decided to press charges anyway in order to serve its own sinister motives. That he was prosecuted at […]