The Internet's Own Boy: A Review

The Internets own Boy: A Review
Course: SOC473A Sociology of Globalization

Submitted to: Prof. Jillet Sam
(13295)
by Harshit Lathi
Date: 30 September 2016
th
Unjust laws exist; shall we be content to obey them, or shall we

endeavor to amend them and obey them until we have succeeded, or shall
we transgress them at once?
Henry David Thoreau These words in the
opening scene seem to depict Brian Knappenbergers belief in the cause of
his subject in The Internets Own Boy: The Story of Aaron Swartz. Swartz
was the young man who refused to obey "unjust laws" and he was essentially
killed after he chose to transgress them. A government turned trigger-happy
by the WikiLeaks scandal and a general sense that they could no longer
control the dissemination of information in the internet age threatened the
technologically pioneering Swartz through over-prosecution, bringing charges
that could have landed him in jail for 35 years. Completely shattered at not
just the prospect of being labeled a felon for the rest of his life but the
betrayal of institutions that should have defended him (like MIT), Swartz
committed suicide at the age of 26.
The movie depicts the entire life of Aaron Swartz (1986-2013). The main plot
revolves around the years of 2010-2013 since he became research fellow at
Harvard University. This was the time when the world was recovering from
the Financial Crisis of 2007-08 and after the attacks of 9/11 the United States
Secret Service became very powerful. Swartz was caught on video for
stealing data from the MIT and JSTOR, a not-for-profit archive of scientific
journals and academic work. He was charged in an indictment with wire
fraud, unlawfully obtaining information from a protected computer, and
recklessly damaging a protected computer. The government, understanding
the issue of national security through the internet, wanted to take control of
the internet if not shut it down. Also, various documents that should have
been made public were handed to private companies so they can generate
revenue over it. The government came up with a SOPA bill. The Stop Online
Piracy Act (SOPA) was a bill to expand the ability of U.S. law enforcement to
combat online copyright infringement and online trafficking in counterfeit
goods. It was thoroughly fought by Aaron and his team and eventually
defeated. The prosecutors and federal agents saw an opportunity to set an
example through Aarons case against the computer hackers. This was an
effort to strengthen the Computer Fraud and Abuse act.
The movie depicts a nice combination of sociological concepts. But if I would

have to remake the movie, I would have made it with several other concepts
too. One of them would be to present the point of view of the nation state
(American government) as well as the organizations such as the FBI or the
Secret Service. The movie has scenes of different activists who expressed
their views on how Aaron was right and how the government was against
internet being available to everyone. It should have included the views of
prosecutors and federal agents on why was Aaron being targeted for such a
small crime? Or was that really a small crime? This would have made the
movie more of a judge-it-yourself kind of a thing rather than the director
showing us one side of the story and making an opinion about who is right.
Another concept that could have been used is to show the efforts of different
organizations that stood with Aaron Swartz through the period of protest
against the government taking away the freedom of common people from
them and charge money for fundamental documents that they have all the
right to access for free. In the protest against SOPA around 7000 websites
coordinated a service blackout. This online community played an important
part in the protest. Similarly, various other NGOs were there with Aaron to
protest against the bill. These organizations played an important role
defeating the bill. More interviews could have been done with the people that
supported Aaron and show the impact of different organizations into shaping
the new reforms in a nation state. These two concepts could have been used
to make the movie better.
The movie definitely connects private troubles and public issues. The people
felt that the articles of journals and legal materials. This was a public issue
since people had to pay to access the documents that should have been
given for free. While on the other hand, the government felt it was only
Aarons problem and people were not bothered to pay the amount for the
documents. Therefore, they went up against him pitching him as the criminal
of the society.
The film really presents Aaron Swartz as a modern-day martyr for the cause
of an open access to the internet that he deeply believed in and dedicated
himself to. Perhaps because of his recent and tragic death the filmmaker
seems unwilling to question the ethics of Aaron's hacker-like tactics. There
really aren't any voices raising serious questions about whether his efforts to
take the law into his own hands by downloading millions of documents was
truly an appropriate form of civil disobedience. He did, in fact, steal millions
of articles and violate intellectual property rights through his actions. He
undoubtedly believed that what he was doing was right and just.
References:
Brian Knappenberger. 2014. The Internet's Own Boy: The Story of

Aaron Swartz. Luminant Media Unjustsus Films.
Ritzer, George. Globalization: A Basic Text.Wiley-Blackwell.2010.Print
Tallerico, Brian. "The Internet's Own Boy: The Story Of Aaron Swartz
Movie Review (2014) | Roger Ebert". Rogerebert.com. N.p., 2014. Web.
29 Sept. 2016.

The Internet's Own Boy: A Review

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

The Internet's Own Boy: A Review

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Description:

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

The Internet's Own Boy: A Review

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

The Internets own Boy: A Review

Course: SOC473A Sociology of Globalization

Unjust laws exist; shall we be content to obey them, or shall we

The movie depicts a nice combination of sociological concepts. But if I would

Brian Knappenberger. 2014. The Internet's Own Boy: The Story of

You might also like

Pfad - The Proxy pFad of © 2024 Garber Painting. All rights reserved.