Optical technologies have revolutionized long-distance communications, replacing low-capacity copper wiring that carries electrical signals with combinations of lasers and fiber-optic cabling that send information over many high-speed channels.

WSJ: IBM Claims Breakthrough in Laser-Based Chips

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To prosecutors, the 26-year-old Swartz was a thief whose aims to make information available didn't excuse the illegal acts he was charged with: breaking into a wiring closet at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and tapping into its computer network to download millions of paid-access scholarly articles, which he planned to share publicly.

WSJ: MIT to release documents about activist Swartz