The Internet's Own Boy: The Story of Aaron Swartz [video]

https://archive.org/details/TheInternetsOwnBoyTheStoryOfAaronSwartz

by nullc • 12 years ago

271 89 12 years ago

nullc2• 12 years ago

This is the full 120 minute long documentary. It's a heavy watch, but interesting to both audiences familiar with the background and ones who are not.

In addition to the normal pay per view streaming on vimeo (https://vimeo.com/ondemand/internetsownboy/94238859), this film was also offered at an increased price under CC-By-NC-SA. I purchased a freely licensed copy and have placed it on archive.org allowing anyone to learn from it, share it with others, or build new works out of it without risk of prosecution and without going through US-only paywall.

The official site for the film is at http://www.takepart.com/internets-own-boy and the there is a Wikipedia article at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Internet%27s_Own_Boy:_The_S...

scrollaway• 12 years ago

Thank you.

rdhyee• 12 years ago

Thanks for posting the video on archive.org. Ever since I read http://boingboing.net/2014/06/19/aaron-swartz-documentary-th..., I've been looking for a place to download the CC-licensed video. If I want to send money to the producers of the video, how should I do so? Buy a copy of the video from vimeo?

thinkcomp6• 12 years ago

Yes, buying from Vimeo is probably the best way to support Brian and his colleagues.

(I am technically one of the "executive producers" but I don't make any money from it.)

jcr• 12 years ago

Thank You nullc. It's really tough to contribute something useful to the discussion about and around Aaron Schwartz. The best I can offer is a paper that I found a few hours ago. I haven't read it yet, but it was just released a few days ago. From what I can tell from the description quoted below by one of the authors, it may be good related research worth reading.

WEIS 2014: Experimental Measurement of Attitudes Regarding Cybercrime

http://weis2014.econinfosec.org/papers/GravesAcquistiAnderso...

"Online activists appear to be treated much more harshly by prosecutors than equivalent street protesters; meanwhile online fraudsters are often treated more leniently than the traditional variety. Over two thousand mTurkers participated in six different between-subjects experiments to assess the seriousness or cybercrimes by type of data (directory vs medical info), scope 10 to 1,000,000 records) motivation (student, activist, profiteer) financial consequences, co-responsibility and whether the victim was a firm, a nonprofit or a government agency. Respondents saw more records as more sensitive than less; profiteers as much worse than students or activists; more expensive cases as more serious; that firms were less liable if servers were patched (but that the data were more sensitive in that case). In summary, participants recommend harsher sentences when cybercrimes involve more or more sensitive data, have costlier consequences, or are motivated by profit. This is much more rational than the reported behaviour of some prosecutors and judges."

rational-future• 12 years ago

Here's a magnet link for torrent users:

magnet:?xt=urn:btih:6b1c1f8476d0604d98e4a9d3d3bbf4cd131e3326&dn=The+Internet%27s+Own+Boy+-+The+Story+of+Aaron+Swartz+%282014%29&tr=udp://tracker.openbittorrent.com:80/announce

lhl• 12 years ago

I haven't gotten myself in the headspace to watch this yet, but perhaps also of interest for those who are is Quinn Norton's recent essay marking the release of the documentary: https://medium.com/message/the-internets-own-boy-c815ae07a41...

The first half of the piece is a bit of a confessional/elegy- personal, poignant, and a bit heartrending, especially for those who knew Aaron. The second half turns decidedly more polemic, but feels all the more important for the HN crowd (or anyone thinking about the future and the society we live in).

Aaron's death was tragic, yes, but it happened within a much (much) larger context of what feels like a waning in social justice and personal freedom around the world.

I've certainly been thinking a lot harder about it in the past year, and I hope others are as well.

RexRollman• 12 years ago

The only thing I don't care for in all this is the deification of Swartz, as if he played no part in the dilemma he found himself in. That said, something need to be done about the prosecutors in this country, who overcharge and bend the law in way not intended.

ghshephard4• 12 years ago

I think the community has reacted the way it has, because what Aaron did, downloading academic journals from a cabling closet, was both in the same context as things that many of us have done (Who hasn't, at one time or another scraped a few gigabytes of Academic Journals, and who hasn't, at University, spent a ton of time trapsing through campus in areas a helluva lot more locked down than where Aaron went), and, it was being done in pursuit of a noble goal, by someone who only had the best interests of others, and the internet at heart.

He was then mercilessly pursued, pushed to the point of financial ruin, and threatened with several decades of prison - by a prosecutor who seemingly had zero sense of right/wrong, even in the face of the supposed victim (JSTOR) indicating they had no desire to pursue this any further.

It was the sort of activity that when I went to school, would have merited a 3 day suspension, if that.

tzs4• 12 years ago

(Responding out of order)

He was then mercilessly pursued, pushed to the point of financial ruin, and threatened with several decades of prison

He was not threatened with several decades in prison. Worst case, if he went to trial and lost, would have been something like 7 years. There was a plea bargain on the table that would have let him get off with a few months. His own lawyers say that if he rejected that and did go to trial, they thought the most likely outcome would be probation with no jail time.

It is possible that he thought he faced several decades between the time he found out about the indictment and the time he first talked to anyone who knows how the federal sentencing guidelines work and how the totals in indictments are so exaggerated that they make Hollywood accounting look realistic.

You can find a very detailed examination of the charges and the possible sentences in the two links given as references in this comment: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7004640

(Who hasn't, at one time or another scraped a few gigabytes of Academic Journals, and who hasn't, at University, spent a ton of time trapsing through campus in areas a helluva lot more locked down than where Aaron went)

I traipsed a lot at Caltech. However, (1) I was a student there, and (2) if I was asked to stop because I was causing trouble, I would (to not do so would have violated the Honor System). In Swartz's case, (1) he had no connection to MIT, and (2) he did NOT stop even when it became clear that MIT did not want him to continue, and continued to the point of getting MIT temporarily cut off from JSTOR.

He should have done his downloading from Harvard, where he had JSTOR access due to his position as a research fellow there, instead of sneaking around at MIT and evading their attempts to get him to stop.

paulhauggis• 12 years ago

" by a prosecutor who seemingly had zero sense of right/wrong, even in the face of the supposed victim (JSTOR) indicating they had no desire to pursue this any further.'

Aaron didn't know the difference between right and wrong either. He snuck into a closet and copied proprietary data.

If I was working for a startup, copied all of their customer data, and released it to the public (because I thought it should be free)..should I be prosecuted?

pdkl95• 12 years ago

The community isn't really deifying Swartz.

What you're seeing is the community making him into a martyr.

Martyrdom is a concept that is somewhat foreign or unexpected in American culture. Similar to the delusion that the country is somehow immune to totalitarianism, there exists a common assumption that martyrs, like dictators, only happen "in those other, less free countries".

The very nature of what it means for someone to be a martyr basically guarantees that people will react strongly. This is why they can be a unifying force ("we must ${dangerous_but_important_task} for ${martyr}!"). This is also why the more talented oppressors take steps to prevent martyrs such as having them "disappeared".

I see this situation as similar to the question of what to do with the medical data acquired from the Nazi camps. A good argument can be made for both sides, but in the end we should make use of the resources we have.

So if it takes some "deification" or get the larger community to finally wake up and do something about these prosecutors (and other related people), then I would suggest that any "deification" at least served an important purpose. Given that Swartz spent a lot of time and energy trying to get people to do just that (wake up and actually fight the "big" problems in our society), then... I suspect he would have approved for the same reason.

Shivetya• 12 years ago

This generation needs better martyrs.

As for waking up the community to do something? Which community? Certainly not this one. This community goes out of their way to elect their own oppressors and justifies the vilifying all those who on the other side prior to any election. Yet they have the gall to turn around and claim they are oppressed? Look, when you willingly, nigh joyfully, watch as they take over your healthcare you cannot then truly expect privacy can you? You cannot suddenly expect that they really care about you do you? Your just one wrong protest away from being in jail.

Hence the term slacktivist, which applies to most of those cheering Aaron on. Never walked a protest line in their life, but ooh they may have downloaded a song they didn't pay for.

jebblue• 12 years ago

You need to look up the definition of martyr. He committed suicide, he was not killed. He was not persecuted for doing right, he was being prosecuted for doing wrong.

sparkzilla2• 12 years ago

I made a timeline of Swartz' life http://newslines.org/aaron-swartz/ Feel free to update if you see something missing.

pa5tabear• 12 years ago

I assume something's wrong with him attending Stanford in 2000 (or being born in 1986).

He didn't go to college when he was 14/15, did he?

sparkzilla2• 12 years ago

Thanks for the tip.

thinkcomp6• 12 years ago

Some links to relevant legal proceedings / profiles:

USA v. Swartz: http://www.plainsite.org/dockets/my5tdot8/massachusetts-dist...

Stephen P. Heymann: http://www.plainsite.org/attorneys/united-states-department-...

Think Computer Foundation et al v. Administrative Office of the United States Courts et al: http://www.plainsite.org/dockets/29himg3wm/california-northe...

Maxious• 12 years ago

"Your activity looks suspicious to us. Please prove that you're human."

thinkcomp6• 12 years ago

We get a lot of scraping activity from China, Russia, and Europe. You probably have an IP from somewhere we've seen actual suspicious activity from. Sorry!

staunch• 12 years ago

"Hackers for right, we are one down, we have lost one of our own." - TimBL

thrush3• 12 years ago

I've just watched this with my roommates, and I think we're in consensus that Aaron's beliefs, to make the Public Domain actually public and universally share information so that we may be push forward the progress of humanity, are undoubtedly correct.

What I would like to know at this time is how to make Aaron's beliefs a reality. What can I do? What can my roommates do? What can anyone do?

Ideally, I also don't think that this is a zero sum game. We can all be winners. I'd like to believe that we can all be winners.

thinkcomp6• 12 years ago

Here's one option:

http://legalinformatics.wordpress.com/2013/01/20/operation-a...

http://www.plainsite.org/asymptote/

Another is to write to your representatives in Congress demanding accountability for prosecutors and Stephen Heymann in particular. The web forms actually do get tallied by interns and closely monitored by staffers when there's a spike.

thrush3• 12 years ago

I appreciate your suggestion, but I feel like there's more to do, and I'd like to do more.

pdonis4• 12 years ago

What can I do?

The first thing you need to decide is, do you want to work within the law, and try to change the system from the inside, or do you think the system is so corrupt that it can't be changed from the inside, so the only option is to take it down from the outside? Swartz appears to have believed that the second option was the only option, at least in the case under discussion. Do you agree?

I'd like to believe that we can all be winners.

I think you're underestimating the greed and the ego of the people who currently have "ownership" rights to so much information that was supposedly the property of the public, since we paid for it being produced in the first place. Those people are not going to give up their cash cow willingly, and if they are forced to give it up, they will not feel like they are "winners". If that were going to happen, it would have happened years ago, once it became obvious to anyone with half a brain that the Internet was a viable means of distribution for information that belongs to the public--that, for example, scientific papers belong on arxiv.org, not locked up in some journal that charges exorbitant fees for access.

In other words, when you're up against greed and ego, thinking that "we can all be winners" is a recipe for failure. The people who are keeping this system propped up need to lose. Anything less won't achieve the goal.

Or to put it still another way: the ones making it a zero-sum game are the publishers trying to hang on to their cash cow, not us.

jaseemabid• 12 years ago

Can we all be good netizens and torrent rather than overload Archive servers? Not enough seeders right now.

1stop15• 12 years ago

torrents feel like they should be part of the browser. It seems odd we rely on ISPs to do local level caching, when we could actually do a lot of it ourselves. (Think how many streams of the world cup are floating around on the internet right now...)

nullc2• 12 years ago

Last mile bandwidth tends to be a lot more expensive than more centralized data center bandwidth— moving traffic out to the edge is just not very attractive in general.

igl• 12 years ago

I downloaded the ogg and even mplayer fails to play it without stuttering and even crashing at some frames. I don't think it's the bandwidth.

gdewilde• 12 years ago

"The Startup Trying to Replace Congress With Software Is Running Two Candidates"

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7960110

kayoone3• 12 years ago

While i believe in the underlying vision that drove Swartz to his actions, the person that killed Swartz was Swartz himself.

Prosecutors overcharge and bend the law all the time, still we don't see mass suicides from the "victims". Swartz obviously had some other unrelated issues that drove him to this extreme.

1stop15• 12 years ago

What is the suicide rate for people facing felony prosecution?

What is their typical socio-economic status? Is that a factor?

My bet is, you don't know the answer to either of those questions, so the "obviously" in your statement is misplaced.

kayoone3• 12 years ago

Its clear by reading his older articles about his reddit past and such that he had some trouble adjusting to a "normal" live. He did not seem like an emotionally stable person to me, even before his suicide.

stephenitis4• 12 years ago

"Prosecutors overcharge and bend the law all the time"

sounds like that is acceptable to you because there isn't mass suicides you can link to.

kayoone3• 12 years ago

thats not what i mean. Some people see the prosecutor as the person responsible for his death, and thats not correct in my view.

stephenitis4• 12 years ago

40 min through is a pretty good tribute to his life, humanity, and values. 10/10 It takes a turn a focus on prosecutorial zeal afterwards. 6/10

electromagnetic• 12 years ago

I had a couple opportunities to talk with him, and being part of the early reddit community, I thought the first 40 mins were a good tribute to who he was.

stephenitis4• 12 years ago

I'm wondering... has anyone really opened JSTOR and their equivalents to the world yet? appears no.

edit* there is not technology and science resource available for congressmen??? smh...

OvidNaso• 12 years ago

Apparently, everything Aaron downloaded is available at theinfo.org. Nobody has really done anything (apparent) with it. The site is down now, so maybe that is an indication this doc has inspired something in someone.

ZenPro13• 12 years ago

I cannot get around the fact that he was offered leniency (6 months in a low security prison) in return for a plea bargain.

He rejected that deal, opting instead for a trial in which prosecutors would have been forced to justify their pursuit of him.

Fair enough - noble and principled if a little foolhardy.

Then he committed suicide.

Given the choice of ending my life or taking 6 months in jail; I know which is the more mentally stable option to take.

1stop15• 12 years ago

You are ascribing your own situation to the problem and pretending it is the same.

Everyone thinks they are completely reasonable, but the fact is our brain convinces us we are even when we are not.

Unless you've actually been someone else, how can you know what it is like?

ZenPro13• 12 years ago

Just to be clear; your assertion is that no human being make a reasonable or educated guess about their behaviour in a situation that is unfamiliar?

That is your assertion?...because it is nonsense if it is. As humans we make effective, educated guesses about unfamiliar scenarios all of the time.

I also don't physically need to be charged with wire fraud to know that I would not take my own life over it leaving behind my children. Children, if convicted today, I would be able to see again before Christmas.

However - if you want to get [really] meta over the subject then your logic defeats itself.

Unless you have actually been me how can you know that I am not completely accurate in my assessment of myself?

Your stated position has rendered you unable to disagree with me. Since you are not me.

hookshot• 12 years ago

Aaron's Law was just recently introduced:

https://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/113/hr2454#overview

There is a really great talk by Lessig about the legal issues surrounding the case at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9HAw1i4gOU4#t=44m39. After seeing the debate around the movie, this quote really stuck out at me:

"He was a citizen who felt a moral obligation to do what he believed was right. And if he is guilty here it is because he acted on that view of what was right. And we need to act to respect that act of citizenship. To think beyond what Aaron did, to think beyond what was done to him, to think about the ideals he gave everything in his life to, and to make those ideals the law."

The Internet's Own Boy: The Story of Aaron Swartz [video]

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