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.

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]