The project was successfully funded on May 24, 2013 – https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/26788492/aaron-swartz-documentary-the-internets-own-boy-0
This film was created by Brian Knappenberger, director of We Are Legion: The Story of the Hacktivists. The film explores Aaron’s arrest, the prosecution’s tactics in bringing the case to trial through the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, the CFAA, and the impact a seemingly small hacking gesture had on Aaron’s life and the possible future of information access on the internet.
Who was Aaron Swartz?
Aaron Hillel Swartz (November 8, 1986 – January 11, 2013) was an American computer programmer, geek, writer, political organizer and Internet activist. Swartz was involved in the development of the web feed format Rich Site Summary (known as RSS), the organization Creative Commons, the website framework web.py and the social news site, Reddit, in which he became a partner after its merger with his company, Infogami.
Swartz’s later work focused on sociology, civic awareness and activism. He helped launch the Progressive Change Campaign Committee in 2009 to learn more about effective online activism. In 2010 he became a research fellow at Harvard University’s Safra Research Lab on Institutional Corruption, directed by Lawrence Lessig. He founded the online group Demand Progress, known for its campaign against the Stop Online Piracy Act.
On January 6, 2011, Swartz was arrested by MIT police on state breaking-and-entering charges, after systematically downloading academic journal articles from JSTOR. Federal prosecutors later charged him with two counts of wire fraud and 11 violations of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, carrying a cumulative maximum penalty of $1 million in fines, 35 years in prison, asset forfeiture, restitution and supervised release.
Two years later, two days after the prosecution denied his lawyer’s second offer of a plea bargain, Swartz was found dead in his Brooklyn, New York apartment, where he had hanged himself.
In June 2013, Swartz was posthumously inducted into the Internet Hall of Fame.
Source – Wikipedia
