The Internet’s Own Boy: The Story of Aaron Swartz
The Life and Death of a Computer Whiz
Brian Knappenberger’sinvestigative style documentaryThe Internet’s Own Boy tells the story of Aaron Swartz, a computer programming prodigy who committed suicide last year after he was indicted for multiple charges of computer fraud.Swartz who helped develop RSSand co-founded Reddit had become an Internet activist and online crusader with a propensity for sharing important documents that he believed the general public should be privy to.
The doc, funded throughKickstarter, weaves together archival footage and photographs of Swartz growing up as a child genius with an incredible thirst for knowledge. As a toddler, he could read books and quickly fell in love with computers, the internet and video games, all of which was well nourished by his parents (his dad Robert founded the software firmMark Williams Company). By the time he was a teenager, Swartz was addicted to programming, coding, the internet and internet culture.
While enrolled in Stanford University, Swartz formed a start-up Infogami, which then merged withReddit and was eventually bought by Condé Nast Publications. Seemingly averse to luxury, he opted to crash in the living room of a cramped apartment surrounded by books.
Swartz’s whole nightmare began when he allegedly downloaded four million academic articles from online service JSTOR and was arrested by MIT police. At the time he was a Harvard student and was given a JSTOR account. Swartz remained adamant that he had done nothing wrong, alas, our over-zealous government did not agree. The fact that his actions were non-remunerative, the files did not contain embarrassing information and he was a first-time offender resulted in a plea deal with a possible light custodial sentence. However, Swartz was reluctant to have a felony conviction on his record. Quinn Norton, an outspoken cast member reiterates this in the second half of the documentary: “He just didn’t believe that he could continue in his life, with a felony, you know. We were walking by the White House and he said, they don’t let felons work there.”
There are plenty of touching moments throughout the film. His devastated parents Susan and Robert, brothers, co-workers, internet colleagues, girlfriends and defense lawyer weigh in on his complexities, brilliance, personality and declining mental health. The salient message in their testimonies confirm thatSwartz was definitely not driven by financial gain. Rather, he felt people had the right to know about important topics such as healthcare and have freedom of the internet. We begin to get angry that the government persecuted him and made an example out of his actions; although not entirely harmless, hacking does not warrant thirty five years behind bars and a million dollars in fines.
Adding to the stress of a sullied reputation, a felony conviction and possible incarceration was Swartz’sfinancial ruin in trying to defend his name. It also emerged that his father spent millions on a legal defense team. These factors wreaked havoc on his mental health and Swartz became very distraught. People who suffer from depression need help and when it spirals out of control, the end result can be tragic. Swartztook his own life in his Brooklyn apartment on January 11th, 2013 and was found by his girlfriend Taren Stinebreckner-Kauffman (no suicide note). The internet “lit up” in an outpouring of grief and anger from his fans and supporters. Fittingly in June of 2013, Swartz was posthumously inducted into TheInternet Hall of Fame.
Later on in the film, we learn that a budding young scientist developed an early diagnostic test (for the usually fatal) pancreatic cancer. He credited Swartz with helping to make the test a reality because crucial research documents were accessible on the net.
Although critics might see it as one-sided, this is a well-researched and dynamic portrait of an accomplished young man who led us into a new phase of sourcing data. It was interesting that no government official gave their side of the story. Swartz had a big problem with copy writing and used his brilliance to try and solve it – END OF.
Unfortunately, the implication of this hacking event along with an antiquated legal system resulted in the loss of his life.
The world has lost a gifted young man.