room102 A documentary about Aaron Swartz, an internet prodigy since a very young age, who had a huge contribution and influence on some of the internet's blocks, such as Creative Commons, RSS, Reddit, SOPA and a lot more. This is the story of one person who tries to fight a government and in some aspects succeeds, but pays in his own life. He had an agenda that knowledge should be shared for free. He protested the situation in which the government makes hundreds of million of dollars in order to allow people to access public domain law/court/science documents. He d/l huge amount of these documents, that had free access from MIT computers, in order to spread them for free. He was charged by the FBI and prosecuted in court, facing a lifetime in prison. In 2013 he committed suicide at age 26.

Leofwine_draca THE INTERNET'S OWN BOY is a great little documentary telling a story about somebody I never heard of: Aaron Swartz, a computer programmer who became a driving force behind various websites on the Internet and who eventually found himself falling foul of the US government when he attempted to change things for the better.This is a simple tale of genius and tragedy, well told in a straightforward style by film-maker Brian Knappenberger. There's a just-right mix of talking head interviews and archive footage which really brings the story to life and helps to teach the viewer a little more about the world which we're living in today. Unlike some documentaries, Swartz's story is definitely one that needs telling, and you can't say fairer than that.

kristiansimonsen21 I rate this movie 10 just because it is something that everyone needs to see. It is one of the most important subjects of our generation. Your and your kids freedom is at stake.If you think freedom of speech is important you should recommend this to everyone you know and don't know.If you think the U.S legal system is to hard on people threatening the establishment you should recommend this to everyone you know and don't know. If you think laws should bee public and accessible to everyone for free you should recommend this to everyone you know and don't know.

l_rawjalaurence The story of Aaron Swartz, who killed himself at the age of 26, is sad but inevitable consequence of the world we inhabit.From his earliest days, he was a prodigy, not only developing the skills of reading and processing information at an early age, but acquiring a unique ability to write programs and offer innovative solutions to many problems presented in the early years of the Internet. With the help of testimonies from Swartz's family, plus colleagues and friends including the inventor of the web, Tim Berners-Lee, Brian Knappenberger's film traces the meteoric career of a genius who appeared to be able to offer solutions that no one else could. More significantly, Swartz had the ability to communicate with his interlocutors, not just in small-group situations but in public arenas as well. This is what rendered him such a powerful figure; although physically diminutive, he had a gift for speech-making that proved hypnotic in its effect.Matters came to a head, however, when Swartz hacked the JSTOR sits, an address used mostly for publishing scholarly journals across all disciplines, downloaded the information and made it available to all web users. This completely contravened JSTOR's principle, which was to make that information only available to subscribers, mostly in academic institutions. The principle might have been a noble one (why shouldn't all users have equal access to information, especially if it aids their research?), but the American government's response was predictably harsh, as they charged Swartz with a variety of crimes under an Act issued as long ago as the mid- Eighties.Knappenberger's film suggests with some justification that this reaction was ludicrously out of proportion to the nature of Swartz's so-called 'crimes.' He had neither challenged the Constitution nor caused harm to others; on the contrary he had simply worked in the interests of democratization. He was the victim of the same kind of paranoia that underpinned the anti-communist campaigns six decades ago, when legions of innocent people were rounded up and made to 'confess' their alleged involvement with a plot to subvert the American way of life, even if they had not done anything. The same applied to Swartz, who was offered the promise of lenient legal treatment in exchange for a 'confession.'The familiarity of Swartz's plight suggests that a climate of intolerance still exists in a country that consistently advertises its democratic credentials, especially when compared with other territories in the world. THE INTERNET'S OWN BOY suggests otherwise; if the government was truly democratic, it would either have understood Swartz's motives, or meted out the same harsh treatment to other criminals - such as those who precipitated the Wall Street crisis of 2008. But who said anything was truly equal in American society?THE INTERNET'S OWN BOT is a polemical piece that leaves viewers feeling both angry and frustrated - angry that a talented soul like Swartz should have had his life cut brutally short, and frustrated that the government should have pursued such heavy-handed treatment. If the film can inspire more activism to try and change official policies, it will have achieved much.