"They want to make an example out of him."
The Internet's Own Boy: The Story of Aaron Swartz, is a biographical documentary about Aaron Swartz, an American programmer, writer, and hacktivist who has a significant contribution to the Internet that we know of today. He is a founder, co-founder, co-owner of Reddit, and creative common. He led a remarkable life and had been fighting for numerous internet activism, including Open Access information which also led him to the tragic end of his life. While we conveniently use the Internet, we should never forget about the old world view towards the Internet. Even today, they still make premature policies that are not pro-internet users. Aaron's story is one of many doors to understand the long indecent government policies about Internet.
The Internet's Own Boy is directed by Brian Knappenberger, known for making a documentary about hacktivism. Before making this documentary, Brian was already following Aaron's arrest and was compelled by this internet whiz kid story. Brian also mentioned that Aaron was speaking up about relevant issues that humanity faces with the coming of massive Internet adaption. You can find more about his interview for take part via this link QA Brian Knappenberger.
Since he was young, Aaron Swartz had contributed to many open-source projects, including RSS, and eventually became the online news board's co-owner, Reddit. One of his mission in life is to make the Internet to be a free place to share information. He even released Guerilla Open Manifesto that you can read via archive.org.
He was relentlessly trying to make a point about the significance of the open Internet. Eventually, he was arrested with charges of unauthorized access to a computer network in MIT after downloading many Jstor data. But that doesn't stop there; he was charged with 13 federal crimes, which according to John Dean, the former Nixon White House counsel, was over the top. As a result of this, he was found dead at his apartment. Then, the world loses another briliant mind of the 21st century due to the old world's premature charges.
Throughout the documentary, you will get to know about Aaron's life from his family and his colleagues. You will be stunned by his creativity and brilliance, but you will feel anger towards the government and the law while handling Aaron's case as the story progresses.
This documentary will also open your eyes to ways the government, investors, and institutions build a firewall to information. And how convenient they can scare the public by making an example from a person who fights for justice. The charges pressed to Aaron by the prosecutors were dropped following his death, showing Aaron's charges were premature. However, his fight was not all in vain, given that he left a significant legacy such as Aaron's Law which exclude terms of service violations from the computer fraud and abuse acts from the wire fraud statute.
Watching this documentary will give you mixed emotions. If you are a student watching this, you will grind your teeth to know this billion dollars information industry's gatekeeping. You experienced how challenging it was to find the article that you need in order to finish your essay; this documentary will give you a glimpse of why it happened and the industry behind it.
I watched this documentary a while ago. I keep trying to write about this, but I was never confident if my review will do justice to this mind-bending documentary. I don't know how many people have watched this documentary, but I am pretty sure, Aaron Swartz is no stranger. From this documentary, I learn that anybody can be " the example" to scare others into speaking out their opinion, especially when dealing with influential crowds with billion dollars in their pocket. During this time, it seems fitting to check this documentary again. Also, you can find the documentary on youtube easily.
Such a tragic incident. He could have built so much more for humanity.
Posted using Dapplr
Yes, it was tragic and disheartening. He could build so much more with the existing technology, IF only they didn't treat him equal to hackers who only wants profit. His case should have been dealt with MIT and Jstor instead involving the government.