Aaron Swartz: his death and legacy – The Verge

‘The Internet’s Own Boy: The Story of Aaron Swartz’ review

2014-06-27T11:42:36-04:00

In the months after Aaron Swartz's suicide in January 2013, members of the media spent hundreds of hours meditating on how a 26-year-old programmer, hacker, and political organizer could have accomplished so much so quickly, and then suddenly and unexpectedly taken his own life. Here at The Verge, Tim Carmody documented Swartz's accomplishments, confronting myth with facts. Larissa MacFarquhar penned a devastating, complex, and beautiful 11,000-word profile of the young man for The New Yorker. The Atlantic, New York magazine, Slate, Rolling Stone and others weighed in, to various degrees of success.

Knappenberger approaches his subject as a …

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Aaron Swartz documentary ‘The Internet’s Own Boy’ now available for pre-order

2014-06-20T09:32:24-04:00

Since taking his own life in early 2013 while faced with a possible 35 years in prison for hacking charges, Aaron Swartz's prosecution has been the cause célèbre of many digital activists. The Internet's Own Boy, a documentary chronicling Swartz's life and legacy - from his work on RSS, Reddit, and Creative Commons to his prosecution for downloading millions of scholarly files - is being released in an appropriately web-friendly format: a DRM-free download, available now for pre-order. Timed to its theatrical release on June 27th, the film will be available to stream for $6.99 through Vimeo on Demand, iTunes, Amazon Instant Video, Comcast, a …

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Watch the trailer for Aaron Swartz documentary ‘The Internet’s Own Boy’

2014-04-28T16:12:07-04:00

Those advocating for the reform of hacking laws have rallied around Aaron Swartz's cause from the beginnings of his prosecution through his suicide last year while facing with the possibility of 35 years in prison. In the short time since, filmmaker Brian Knappenberger has created The Internet's Own Boy, a documentary that traces Swartz's early impact on the web and details his struggle with the government after being caught downloading a mass of copyrighted articles from the digital library JSTOR. The film premiered in January at Sundance, where Swartz's father and brothers were around to speak about Aaron, his case, and his work. Its first …

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‘The Internet’s Own Boy’ fights for reform after Aaron Swartz’s death

2014-01-23T11:04:48-05:00

January 11th marked the first anniversary of Aaron Swartz's death. As an inventor, a coder, and an activist, Swartz had an outsized impact on the world before he died at the age of 26. In his short life, he helped to shape the modern internet by developing RSS, Creative Commons licenses, and Reddit. But he also spent the last two years of his life fighting a legal case that stemmed from his copying millions of documents from a digital library. Depressed and facing 35 years in prison, Swartz committed suicide in his Brooklyn apartment.

A compelling new feature documentary

Swartz's story was widely chronicled in real time, including here on The …

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Aaron Swartz’s legacy lives on: SecureDrop is a WikiLeaks for any journalist

2013-10-16T00:13:06-04:00

Aaron Swartz - SOPA (Flickr)

In May, The New Yorker revealed what hacktivist Aaron Swartz was building before his untimely death: an encrypted dead drop system that would let whistleblowers leak documents to journalists without fear of exposing their identity. The New Yorker launched its own implementation, Strongbox, and other media outlets were free to do the same - but in August, noted security researchers at the University of Washington reported that DeadDrop wasn't quite ready for primetime, citing issues installing and using the software among many other things.That's where Aaron Swartz's legacy stood - until today.

Today, the Freedom of the Press Foundation has …

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First Secret Service documents on Aaron Swartz investigation released

2013-08-12T19:50:07-04:00

aaron swartz (quinn norton flickr)

The public is seeing the first fruits of a Freedom of Information Act request for the Secret Service's files on the late hacker and activist Aaron Swartz with the release of 104 pages of agency documents. Swartz committed suicide at the age of 26 while facing the possibility of up to 35 years in prison for the bulk downloading of some 70 gigabytes of academic papers from the JSTOR repository on the MIT campus.

"Why didn't you do this earlier?"

The request was filed by Wired's Kevin Poulsen, who reports that the documents describe a February, 2011 search on Swartz's home - effected over a month after he was first arrested by campus police. Ac …

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MIT denies targeting Aaron Swartz, but admits ‘neutral’ stance gave FBI the upper hand

2013-07-30T11:31:11-04:00

via farm3.staticflickr.com

MIT has finally released a report on its role in the prosecution of hacktivist Aaron Swartz - a legal battle that's been blamed for spurring his suicide in January of 2013. In an open letter, president R. Rafael Reif said that the report would show that MIT "did not seek federal prosecution, punishment or jail time" for Swartz after finding that he had used MIT's network to access and mass-download articles from academic repository JSTOR. The report, compiled by Professor Hal Abelson and others, finds that MIT didn't actively aggravate the case that would consume Swartz's life, saying there was no "silver bullet" that could have prevented th …

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MIT intervenes in FOIA release of Aaron Swartz documents, seeks ‘pre-release review’

2013-07-18T20:32:40-04:00

aaron swartz lead

Earlier this month, it was revealed that documents relating to the Secret Service's investigation into hacker and activist Aaron Swartz would be released under a freedom of information act (FOIA) request from Wired reporter Kevin Poulsen - but now Poulsen has indicated that their release has been delayed thanks to a motion filed by MIT. According to Poulsen's report in Wired and corroborated by court documents, MIT today filed a motion to intervene to review the documents prior to their release to Poulsen, with a request for an expedited hearing to take place on or before July 25th.

The court documents also indicate that MIT wants to delay …

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Aaron Swartz’s Secret Service files to be released in small victory for transparency

2013-07-09T14:27:02-04:00

Aaron Swartz

Following months of delays, the public will finally have access to the Secret Service's records on Aaron Swartz, the activist and hacker who tragically committed suicide amid a lawsuit regarding bulk downloads from the JSTOR academic database. The Secret Service has fought to withhold the files about Swartz, denying a Freedom of Information Act request from Wired's Kevin Poulsen by citing sensitive information regarding ongoing proceedings, despite the case being dismissed following Swartz's death.

Most of the academic articles downloaded from the JSTOR database where within the public domain yet remained locked behind a paywall. Swartz cre …

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The New Yorker launches Strongbox, an anonymous inbox developed by Aaron Swartz

2013-05-15T10:49:31-04:00

security code graphic

Before his suicide in January, hacktivist Aaron Swartz was working on an ambitious project: an encrypted dead drop system that could receive and protect files from anonymous sources. Wired editor Kevin Poulsen, who met Swartz when his site Reddit was sold to Condé Nast (which owns both Wired and The New Yorker), had asked him to help design a secure and anonymous inbox for investigative reporting. Over the course of a year, Poulsen and Swartz worked out the system with help from security expert James Dolan, creating a stable version by December 2012.

But the tentative launch plans were derailed by Swartz's death. "In the immediate aftermath …

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