By Katherine Landergan, Globe Correspondent

The US District Court in Boston has dropped the charges against Aaron Swartz, a web entrepreneur and political activist who committed suicide Friday, according to a court document filed this morning.

Swartz's attorney, Elliot Peters, said in an email that the dropped charges were "too little too late."

"[The dismissal] would have been welcome this time last week," he wrote.

In July 2011, Swartz was charged in US District Court in Boston for hacking into the JSTOR archive system on MIT's network in 2010. He allegedly downloaded more than 4 million articles, some of which were behind a paywall.

According to authorities, Swartz, who was a fellow at Harvard University's Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics, planned to distribute the information for free on file-sharing websites.

US Attorney Carmen Ortiz and Assistant US Attorney Stephen Heymann, filed the two sentence notice of dismissal.

The court document says the case is being dismissed due to Swartz's death on Jan. 11.

Swartz, 26, hanged himself in his Brooklyn apartment, according to the New York Medical 'Examiner's Office and a statement from his family and partner.

In the days following Swartz's death, online users have called for government action.

A petition for the government's removal of Ortiz was created Saturday on the White House website. The petition, "remove United States District Attorney Carmen Ortiz from office for overreach in the case of Aaron Swartz" has garnered more than 14,000 signatures.