11 ms·

The internet’s own boy: the story of Aaron Swartz [video]

140 points by Libertatea 11y ago

Spockulus_Rift 11y ago
I cried as if he were our own boy.
zz1 11y ago
Just the video, embedded from youtube. Here's the official site of the movie: http://www.takepart.com/internets-own-boy http://www.takepart.com/internets-own-boy Definitively a movie anyone using the internet should watch. I cried.
- charlysisto 11y ago
  The part (59mn) where his former girlfriend confesses she's still angry, angry at a system that tries to trap you and turn everything against you and ruin your life... is devastating.
- evolve2k 11y ago
  That link to takepart seems to be asking people to pay. The film is released under Creative Commons and is available for free to stream or download (MPEG, OGG, Torrent) directly off the Internet Archive. https://archive.org/details/TheInternetsOwnBoyTheStoryOfAaronSwartz https://archive.org/details/TheInternetsOwnBoyTheStoryOfAaro...
- ddingus 11y ago
  As did I, and that was surprising. What moved me the most was Lessig. Aaron got right into Larry's soul, and once there, asked a simple, genuine question that could not be denied. There is a quiet power in that I find profound, as if we all operate under limits that really aren't there when we really do question. "Sweet, sweet boy." Yeah Larry, indeed.
  - gknoy 11y ago
    This. I haven't been able to watch this, because even __reading__ about it makes me cry. I didn't know Aaron, never knew anything about him before this, and I still feel profound loss and tragedy whenever I think about him and his experiences. He sounded like an amazing human being.
    - ddingus 11y ago
      Me too. I did know about him through his activities. The name popped up on my radar a long time ago. What I didn't know is he was so young. I also didn't know how many great advocacy efforts he helped to setup or founded. It's amazing! And that, I could feel, like white hot, and to be honest, got me far more politically aware. When the Jstor event happened, I found out a lot more, and when he killed himself, I just felt loss. Profound, basic loss. And it was a hard loss, because I just began to know, and was interested in following Aaron, feeling like good things were going to happen, and then just like that, he's gone... :( This work is really good. It communicates that aspect of Aaron to people in a meaningful way. Yes, it will be hard to watch. I found it worth it though. I question more now. And I think about limits and norms a lot...
djrobstep 11y ago
This time can we please skip the obligatory mega-thread about if Aaron was or wasn't a True Founder of Reddit?
- teach 11y ago
  It appears that we have skipped it. So, good job?
peter303 11y ago
I saw it and recommend it. It gives some insight into Aaron's life and legal situation.
nthcolumn 11y ago
They were doing exactly the same thing as him (and worse) but they killed him.
Zigurd 11y ago
The people who could not find their way to some thoughtfulness and restraint and stop an insanely inappropriate and disproportionate legal travesty should lose their jobs and be driven out of their professions.
- Lawtonfogle 11y ago
  >an insanely inappropriate and disproportionate legal travesty That is just about every case ever. Even the really bad people, the ones you and I and everyone else reading this agree deserve to be locked behind bars, have their charges trumped up far beyond what they are actually guilty of in an attempt to coerce them to take a plea bargain for lesser charges. To put another way, they are successfully punishing most people for insisting on their right to a fair trial.
  - ohitsdom 11y ago
    Every case ever has had inappropriate and disproportionate trial/punishment? That's a very outlandish statement. Are you referring to a specific type of crime? A good argument can be made that this is true for many marijuana cases. But you seem to be talking about all crimes...
    - Lawtonfogle 11y ago
      You missed my 'just about'. And while it might be a little overstated (I haven't seen anyone do a massive sampling to compare what the charges were compared to what they should've been, which is probably a bit subjective), I would consider it in the majority of cases based on the anecdotes I've seen. Anecdotes are definitely imperfect and worse than peer reviewed science, but lacking the latter, the former is better than nothing.
      - ohitsdom 11y ago
        "Just about" doesn't leave much room for variation. But I get your point, and the link zimpenfish posted actually supports your opinion fairly well. My initial knee-jerk reaction against your original comment seems to have been off base. Which is sad for the state of our justice system...
Radle 11y ago
"tragic story"
globuous 11y ago
I watched it a while ago and I believe the movie talks about Aaron possibly investigating on the correlation of results found in JSTOR's academic papers database in order to conclude on the influence of financing on their results (hopefully what I'm saying makes sense... I may also very well be wrong about this claim). I am myself very interested in this topic, regardless of whether that's what Aaron was trying to do when downloading these papers. Does anyone know if such an analysis has been performed since/before/ever ?
masterminding 11y ago
People should really be upset at the first girlfriend who tipped the Feds about the manifesto for immunity. You really have to keep most people on a need-to-know basis.
- nness 11y ago
  I think the movie conveys pretty clearly that she shows a lot of remorse and anger about how she was treated and the information she gave up under duress.
  - pervycreeper 11y ago
    > anger about how she was treated There's the problem.
  - masterminding 11y ago
    It doesn't matter. Her cooperating for immunity led to a ripple effect of him committing suicide.
jbob2000 11y ago
What's crazy is that the accomplices in the Boston Marathon bombings faced less jail time than Aaron. That's right people, copying documents is a worse crime than being an accomplice to terrorism.
s_dev 11y ago
"But also, I must admit that I am a little disappointed in Aaron. I understand that depression is a serious disease that can fell any person, however strong. But he chose the path of the activist long ago. And the path of the activist is to fight, for as long and as hard as it takes, to effect change. Aaron had powerful friends, a powerful support network, and a keen sense of moral cause that put him in the right. That's how he got that support network of powerful friends and fellow activists in the first place" -- J. Atwood http://blog.codinghorror.com/the-end-of-ragequitting/ http://blog.codinghorror.com/the-end-of-ragequitting/ I always felt this Jeff Atwood blog post was a good run down of why everyone was so upset over Aaron's suicide. It was a stupidly tragic mistake and Aaron knew better.
- Eupolemos 11y ago
  That is how depression sometimes goes. But stupid? Disappointing? These labels are not fit for fate of a severely depressed mind; logic sense ends and the risk of suicide is a roll of the dice, NOT a matter of commitment to who or what we love. All I see is the selfpity of those left behind transformed into cynicism. It is unbecoming. In my humble opinion.
  - deleted 11y ago
    [deleted]
    - angersock 11y ago
      People who don't help don't get to be disappointed.
- angersock 11y ago
  Yeah, sure, and Atwood has done what exactly to further our causes and rights? Seriously, that article is a bunch of self-indulgent bullshit and Atwood cashing in on the suffering and suicide of an otherwise decent person. EDIT: Thanks for the downvotes. Again, from the Atwood article: "Play other, better moves – and consider your long game." With the charges he was facing, there wasn't a long-term game. According to wikipedia, was looking at a total of 35 years in prison and $1M in fines. There is no long game there other than trying to invest in cigarettes and bars of soap and pocket radios. There are no better moves. "I say this not as a person who wishes to judge Aaron Swartz." Every time I read something like this, there's always an unstated "...but I totally am and will!". The whole thing is kinda victim-blamey.
evolve2k 11y ago
Aeon's Deputy Editor has also (just?) published a 2600 word detailed article on Aaron Swartz asking "Persecuted little guy, or powerful revolutionary – what sort of wunderkind was Aaron Swartz?" Posted here https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9505156 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9505156
afarrell 11y ago
As someone working on an project for DARPA & the FBI, having a dump of all of the court documents from PACER would be awfully useful. (https://github.com/memex-explorer https://github.com/memex-explorer if you are curious)
ronald_dregan 11y ago
he was a fuckin pussy who got caught doing something illegal then got all emo about it and killed himself. who the fuck cares about this faggot? seriously.
JDiculous 11y ago
Not a fan of unnecessary reposts, but this guy's death was a huge tragedy for our generation so I don't mind more people seeing this. He could've been one of the first congressmen actually in touch with our generation, and willing to take a stance on issues he believes in rather than pander to lobbyists.
sparkzilla 11y ago
For those catching up, I made a timeline of the events of Swartz life and arrest: http://newslines.org/aaron-swartz/ http://newslines.org/aaron-swartz/
dang 11y ago
https://hn.algolia.com/?query=internet%27s%20own%20boy&sort=byDate&prefix&page=0&dateRange=all&type=story https://hn.algolia.com/?query=internet%27s%20own%20boy&sort=...

140 points by Libertatea 11y ago

I cried as if he were our own boy.

zz1 11y ago

Just the video, embedded from youtube. Here's the official site of the movie: http://www.takepart.com/internets-own-boy http://www.takepart.com/internets-own-boy Definitively a movie anyone using the internet should watch. I cried.

charlysisto 11y ago
The part (59mn) where his former girlfriend confesses she's still angry, angry at a system that tries to trap you and turn everything against you and ruin your life... is devastating.
evolve2k 11y ago
That link to takepart seems to be asking people to pay. The film is released under Creative Commons and is available for free to stream or download (MPEG, OGG, Torrent) directly off the Internet Archive. https://archive.org/details/TheInternetsOwnBoyTheStoryOfAaronSwartz https://archive.org/details/TheInternetsOwnBoyTheStoryOfAaro...
ddingus 11y ago
As did I, and that was surprising. What moved me the most was Lessig. Aaron got right into Larry's soul, and once there, asked a simple, genuine question that could not be denied. There is a quiet power in that I find profound, as if we all operate under limits that really aren't there when we really do question. "Sweet, sweet boy." Yeah Larry, indeed.
- gknoy 11y ago
  This. I haven't been able to watch this, because even __reading__ about it makes me cry. I didn't know Aaron, never knew anything about him before this, and I still feel profound loss and tragedy whenever I think about him and his experiences. He sounded like an amazing human being.
  - ddingus 11y ago
    Me too. I did know about him through his activities. The name popped up on my radar a long time ago. What I didn't know is he was so young. I also didn't know how many great advocacy efforts he helped to setup or founded. It's amazing! And that, I could feel, like white hot, and to be honest, got me far more politically aware. When the Jstor event happened, I found out a lot more, and when he killed himself, I just felt loss. Profound, basic loss. And it was a hard loss, because I just began to know, and was interested in following Aaron, feeling like good things were going to happen, and then just like that, he's gone... :( This work is really good. It communicates that aspect of Aaron to people in a meaningful way. Yes, it will be hard to watch. I found it worth it though. I question more now. And I think about limits and norms a lot...

djrobstep 11y ago

This time can we please skip the obligatory mega-thread about if Aaron was or wasn't a True Founder of Reddit?

teach 11y ago
It appears that we have skipped it. So, good job?

peter303 11y ago

I saw it and recommend it. It gives some insight into Aaron's life and legal situation.

nthcolumn 11y ago

They were doing exactly the same thing as him (and worse) but they killed him.

Zigurd 11y ago

The people who could not find their way to some thoughtfulness and restraint and stop an insanely inappropriate and disproportionate legal travesty should lose their jobs and be driven out of their professions.

Lawtonfogle 11y ago
>an insanely inappropriate and disproportionate legal travesty That is just about every case ever. Even the really bad people, the ones you and I and everyone else reading this agree deserve to be locked behind bars, have their charges trumped up far beyond what they are actually guilty of in an attempt to coerce them to take a plea bargain for lesser charges. To put another way, they are successfully punishing most people for insisting on their right to a fair trial.
- ohitsdom 11y ago
  Every case ever has had inappropriate and disproportionate trial/punishment? That's a very outlandish statement. Are you referring to a specific type of crime? A good argument can be made that this is true for many marijuana cases. But you seem to be talking about all crimes...
  - Lawtonfogle 11y ago
    You missed my 'just about'. And while it might be a little overstated (I haven't seen anyone do a massive sampling to compare what the charges were compared to what they should've been, which is probably a bit subjective), I would consider it in the majority of cases based on the anecdotes I've seen. Anecdotes are definitely imperfect and worse than peer reviewed science, but lacking the latter, the former is better than nothing.
    - ohitsdom 11y ago
      "Just about" doesn't leave much room for variation. But I get your point, and the link zimpenfish posted actually supports your opinion fairly well. My initial knee-jerk reaction against your original comment seems to have been off base. Which is sad for the state of our justice system...

Radle 11y ago

"tragic story"

globuous 11y ago

I watched it a while ago and I believe the movie talks about Aaron possibly investigating on the correlation of results found in JSTOR's academic papers database in order to conclude on the influence of financing on their results (hopefully what I'm saying makes sense... I may also very well be wrong about this claim). I am myself very interested in this topic, regardless of whether that's what Aaron was trying to do when downloading these papers. Does anyone know if such an analysis has been performed since/before/ever ?

masterminding 11y ago

People should really be upset at the first girlfriend who tipped the Feds about the manifesto for immunity. You really have to keep most people on a need-to-know basis.

nness 11y ago
I think the movie conveys pretty clearly that she shows a lot of remorse and anger about how she was treated and the information she gave up under duress.
- pervycreeper 11y ago
  > anger about how she was treated There's the problem.
- masterminding 11y ago
  It doesn't matter. Her cooperating for immunity led to a ripple effect of him committing suicide.

jbob2000 11y ago

What's crazy is that the accomplices in the Boston Marathon bombings faced less jail time than Aaron. That's right people, copying documents is a worse crime than being an accomplice to terrorism.

s_dev 11y ago

"But also, I must admit that I am a little disappointed in Aaron. I understand that depression is a serious disease that can fell any person, however strong. But he chose the path of the activist long ago. And the path of the activist is to fight, for as long and as hard as it takes, to effect change. Aaron had powerful friends, a powerful support network, and a keen sense of moral cause that put him in the right. That's how he got that support network of powerful friends and fellow activists in the first place" -- J. Atwood http://blog.codinghorror.com/the-end-of-ragequitting/ http://blog.codinghorror.com/the-end-of-ragequitting/ I always felt this Jeff Atwood blog post was a good run down of why everyone was so upset over Aaron's suicide. It was a stupidly tragic mistake and Aaron knew better.

Eupolemos 11y ago
That is how depression sometimes goes. But stupid? Disappointing? These labels are not fit for fate of a severely depressed mind; logic sense ends and the risk of suicide is a roll of the dice, NOT a matter of commitment to who or what we love. All I see is the selfpity of those left behind transformed into cynicism. It is unbecoming. In my humble opinion.
- deleted 11y ago
  [deleted]
  - angersock 11y ago
    People who don't help don't get to be disappointed.
angersock 11y ago
Yeah, sure, and Atwood has done what exactly to further our causes and rights? Seriously, that article is a bunch of self-indulgent bullshit and Atwood cashing in on the suffering and suicide of an otherwise decent person. EDIT: Thanks for the downvotes. Again, from the Atwood article: "Play other, better moves – and consider your long game." With the charges he was facing, there wasn't a long-term game. According to wikipedia, was looking at a total of 35 years in prison and $1M in fines. There is no long game there other than trying to invest in cigarettes and bars of soap and pocket radios. There are no better moves. "I say this not as a person who wishes to judge Aaron Swartz." Every time I read something like this, there's always an unstated "...but I totally am and will!". The whole thing is kinda victim-blamey.

evolve2k 11y ago

Aeon's Deputy Editor has also (just?) published a 2600 word detailed article on Aaron Swartz asking "Persecuted little guy, or powerful revolutionary – what sort of wunderkind was Aaron Swartz?" Posted here https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9505156 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9505156

afarrell 11y ago

As someone working on an project for DARPA & the FBI, having a dump of all of the court documents from PACER would be awfully useful. (https://github.com/memex-explorer https://github.com/memex-explorer if you are curious)

ronald_dregan 11y ago

he was a fuckin pussy who got caught doing something illegal then got all emo about it and killed himself. who the fuck cares about this faggot? seriously.

JDiculous 11y ago

Not a fan of unnecessary reposts, but this guy's death was a huge tragedy for our generation so I don't mind more people seeing this. He could've been one of the first congressmen actually in touch with our generation, and willing to take a stance on issues he believes in rather than pander to lobbyists.

sparkzilla 11y ago

For those catching up, I made a timeline of the events of Swartz life and arrest: http://newslines.org/aaron-swartz/ http://newslines.org/aaron-swartz/

dang 11y ago

https://hn.algolia.com/?query=internet%27s%20own%20boy&sort=byDate&prefix&page=0&dateRange=all&type=story https://hn.algolia.com/?query=internet%27s%20own%20boy&sort=...