The Internet's Own Boy: The Story of Aaron Swartz (2014) | Hacker News Reader

The Internet's Own Boy: The Story of Aaron Swartz (2014)

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94 pointstslocum16 comments

3 months ago: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24678554

Related and current: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25731566

Submission statement:

The story of programming prodigy, information activist and co-founder of reddit Aaron Swartz, who took his own life at the age of 26.

While under duress from the threat of prosecution by the federal government for republishing academic research while MIT stood by silently.

Unfortunately the openess of data he fought for would possibly be criticized as enabling accused malactors.

Aaron is dead. Wanderers in this crazy world, we have lost a mentor, a wise elder. Hackers for right, we are one down, we have lost one of our own. Nurturers, carers, listeners, feeders, parents all, we have lost a child. Let us all weep.

-Sir Tim Berners-Lee, January 11, 2013

This is a must watch if you haven't seen it. Thanks for adding it to the feed op.

I think Aaron would have been proud to see the rise of Sci-Hub today. I am disappointed that we haven't learned from our mistakes, and that the powers that be are attacking Sci-Hub with as much, or even more, vigor and evil.

This is a must-watch. Made me furious and teary eyed the first time I've seen this and really understood his story.

recommended read: "A Programmable Web" https://www.morganclaypool.com/doi/pdfplus/10.2200/S00481ED1...

land of the free.

Just because you're a prodigy doesn't make you exempt from the rules that exist. On the scale of injustices, what he did is hardly an offense worthwhile by illegitimate means. He should've just gone about it the way the system is devised. Nobody likes it. But being noble doesn't get you anywhere nowadays.

> But being noble doesn't get you anywhere nowadays.

It never did. You do it for the people that come after you.

Doing anything for the "greater good" doesn't get you anything besides being a folk hero. There are very few if any folk heroes that ever "triumphed" over the state.

Being noble is only possible when you have power. When you know the right people, breaking the law like he did can be shrugged of as an ideological protest.

His prosecution shows just how flawed the Criminal Justice system is in the US. Harsh laws, selectively applied and the weakest get the harshest sentences.

What he did was barely a criminal offense, breaking terms of service should not warrant jail time. If it does then we are ALL guilty of the same "crimes" as Swartz, including you.

One thing that bothered me about this documentary were his interviews on Russia Today. He didn't understand the extent to which he was being used by foreign adversaries to push a narrative favorable to them.

That doesn't mean his arguments are wrong, but they're in a quite misleading context.

If you go on RT you should do it like Yascha Mounk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cucX1IO78lM

In hindsight, wikileaks was more an arm of Russian propaganda than Aaron understood.

(Full comment from the other thread, just got buried: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25734526)

(meta: To those downvoting, the irony is if Aaron had lived to see today's political insanity - I suspect he would have regretted those interviews too. He seemed pretty introspective and thoughtful about politics.)

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