The Pirate Bay is now home to more than 18,000 scientific papers, courtesy user Greg Maxwell, who had access to the files courtesy of academic database JSTOR. The torrent is a reaction to Aaron Swartz’s recent indictment for data theft from JSTOR and MIT. GigaOM reports that all of the documents’ copyrights have expired, but they are (or rather, were, prior to the torrent’s appearance) only available via JSTOR, and could cost as much as $19 per document.

Maxwell says that he gained access to the documents legally, years ago, and chose to upload them now as a statement about the academic publishing system, which he feels is corrupt. He posted the documents under his real name, not wanting Swartz to be blamed for the leak. Missionerande Kopimistsamfundet calls the action a “holy deed […] committed against the oppressive system of scientific journals.”

Reddit cofounder Aaron Swartz has been charged for data theft by Carmen M. Ortiz, the US Attorney for the District of Massachusetts. He is charged with stealing more than 4 million documents from MIT and academic archive JSTOR. The charges could result in up to 35 years in prison and a fine of $1 million. Swartz’s charges include computer fraud, wire fraud, criminal forfeiture and obtaining information from a protected computer. [The New York Times]

Steve Huffman and Alexis Ohanian both founded Reddit after launching it from Y-Combinator. Christopher Rowe and Aaron Swartz joined the team shortly after the company was founded. Y-Combinator is an incubation firm started by Paul Graham. Both of the Reddit founders are leaving for personal reasons.

Huffman is moving back to Virginia to spend more time with his wife. Ohanian plans to spend some time traveling. Rowe will be staying with Reddit for a while. Swartz was fired from Reddit two years ago for not respecting the company rules after being acquired by Wired Magazine.