Unreleased Footage From the Aaron Swartz Documentary ‘Internet’s Own Boy’

Production house Luminant Media is marking the second anniversary of the death of hactivist and entrepreneur Aaron Swartz with the release of additional footage from the documentary Internet’s Own Boy (previously), as well as video from a discussion about the film between its director Brian Knappenberger and Xeni Jardin of Boing Boing. Boing Boing also has additional remembrances of Swartzand some information about what has unfolded in the years following his death.

It has never been more clear for those concerned about the issues Aaron cared about–ending corruption, increasing transparency in government, understanding civil liberties and equality in an increasingly networked world and reforming a very broken criminal justice system–that justice still has a long road ahead

Aaron Hillel Swartz (November 8, 1986 – January 11, 2013) was an American computer programmer, entrepreneur, writer, political organizer and Internet hacktivist who was involved in the development of the web feed format RSS and the Markdown publishing format, 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. He committed suicide in the context of a prosecution for "federal data-theft".

Swartz's work also focused on sociology, civic awareness and activism. He helped launch the Progressive Change Campaign Committeein 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,[14] carrying a cumulative maximum penalty of $1 million in fines, 35 years in prison, asset forfeiture, restitution andsupervised release.

Swartz declined a plea bargain under which he would have served six months in federal prison. Two days after the prosecution rejected a counter-offer by Swartz, he was found dead in his Brooklyn apartment, where he had hanged himself.

In June 2013, Swartz was posthumously inducted into the Internet Hall of Fame.