+++
title = "Guerilla Open Access"
glassblowers = ["aaronswartz.md"]
+++

A foundational formulation of such disobedience was penned in 2008 by Aaron Swartz, a prominent hacker and political activist, in his Guerilla Open Access Manifesto:

  > Information is power. But like all power, there are those who want to keep it for themselves. The world's entire scientific and cultural heritage, published over centuries in books and journals, is increasingly being digitized and locked up by a handful of private corporations. Want to read the papers featuring the most famous results of the sciences? You'll need to send enormous amounts to publishers like Reed Elsevier… We need to take information, wherever it is stored, make our copies and share them with the world. We need to take stuff that's out of copyright and add it to the archive. We need to buy secret databases and put them on the Web. We need to download scientific journals and upload them to file sharing networks. We need to fight for Guerilla Open Access. With enough of us, around the world, we'll not just send a strong message opposing the privatization of knowledge — we'll make it a thing of the past. Will you join us? 

From Aaron Swartz, *Guerilla Open Access Manifesto*, 2008.