The Internet’s Own Boy: The Story of Aaron Swartz (2014)
Cast: Tim Berners-Lee, Cory Doctorow, Peter Eckersley
Director: Brian Knappenberger
Country: USA
Genre: Documentary | Biography | Crime | News
Editor’s Note: The Internet’s Own Boy: The Story of Aaron Swartz opens this Friday in limited release.
Non-fiction work such as documentaries, are investigatory and revelatory forces in cinema. The subject of focus is given various treatments or views via interviews, footage, and various settings of the subjects past and present. Sometimes the subject is hero or an moral cause.
There’s a permeating senselessness to the tale of Aaron Swartz, digital wunderkind and activist. On the one hand, his suicide left a tragic sense of loss, and on the other hand, the events that led up to it are a frightening account of how the justice system fails to keep up with technology. Brian Knappenberger’s The Internet’s Own Boy: The Story of Aaron Swartz is a tribute to Swartz and a critique of the U.S. justice system.
Brian Knappenberger’s The Internet’s Own Boy: The Story of Aaron Swartz is a tribute to Swartz and a critique of the U.S. justice system.
Early footage profiles Swartz the child prodigy, proficient at languages and using a computer in his first milestone years. Poignant accounts from his family reveal an intelligent and mischievous child who was loved by many. The same young boy is then seen addressing a room of his older computer peers forecasting his views on the freedom of the Internet. How does a child process the complexities of an adult world when his brain has gone light years ahead? His awkwardness and disenfranchisement with society is palpable in interviews with the young man, but behind it all was a continually searching mind. His work with co-founding Reddit, establishing a pre-wikipedia, building RSS feeds, and the list goes on and on. He was proficient when it came to computer technology, and when people saw the financial potential in him, Swartz looked towards activist work instead.
In the midst of all of his work, and with motivations that are still unclear, Swartz was caught downloading papers through academic catalog JSTOR. In a sting caper that seemed something out of an international spy espionage drama, Swartz was caught on video and subsequently arrested. The trial and media circus that surrounded the case served as a medium by which the U.S. government made him a cautionary tome to hacktivists everywhere, (“You shall not pass. Pass what? We do not know.”). Knappenberger makes his case clear: the justice system is extremely behind its understanding of the Internet, computer technology, and powered by their fear of the unknown, they overzealously persecuted Swartz.
While Swartz wasn’t a saintly buddha, he was a young rebel who was willing to do what it took to make the world aware of the flawed views of the government has when it comes to intellectual property and privacy on the internet. His work with SOPA is what first made me think about how the government encroaches on citizens’ rights even in the safety of their own homes. The film exposes the antiquated views of the government and the ignorant actions of its justice system. It’s incredibly frightening to see it unraveled before one’s eyes in the film.
The film exposes the antiquated views of the government and the ignorant actions of its justice system. It’s incredibly frightening to see it unraveled before one’s eyes in the film.
While the documentary borders on adulation, it’s also an investigative account for those unfamiliar with Swartz and his universal cause: access to information is vital to a society that thrives on open source mediums and the laws that try to control them must change with the pace of modern technologies. The government may have been self-righteous and heavy handed in their conviction of Swartz, but they inadvertently made Swartz into a martyr after his death at the young age of 25.
The Internet’s Own Boy: The Story of Aaron Swartz is a devastating tribute to Aaron Swartz and a tale that posits a disturbing theory: are Internet laws for the people now or are they for the archaic powers that be? Even if you didn’t know about Aaron Swartz before, if you use a computer everyday, you owe it to the kid to know him now.
The Internet's Own Boy: The Story of Aaron Swartz is a devastating tribute to Aaron Swartz and a tale that posits a disturbing theory: are Internet laws for the people now or are they for the archaic powers that be? Even if you didn’t know about Aaron Swartz before, if you use a computer everyday, you owe it to the kid to know him now.
