Last year, I shared a letter I sent to US Attorney Carmen Ortiz, AUSA Stephen Heymann, and others that prosecuted Aaron Swartz.  I felt (then and now) the government over-prosecuted this case, consuming significant prosecutorial & investigative resources and taking a negotiation stance way out of line with what Mr. Swartz actually did.

One of the key points in the government’s indictment was Mr. Swartz changing the MAC addresses on his laptop to avoid MIT’s attempts to block access.  (Since MIT’s network is completely open, MAC address tracking and blocking is the only real way to shut someone down, short of finding the physical device.)

And now, Apple has announced that MAC addresses in iOS 8 will be randomized, a user privacy feature to thwart tracking.  In other words, Apple has feature-ized the same technique Mr. Swartz used to avoid being tracked and blocked!  There’s a certain absurdity here I can’t quite express.

To be clear:  I’m not defending what Mr. Swartz did.  But this is one small example why this case has gotten so much attention.  When our prosecutors and law enforcement professionals don’t understand the technology (and don’t bring in experts that do) in complex cases, justice isn’t served.