Aaron Swartz Documentary – The Internet's Own Boy

I find the blurb on this Kickstarter very off putting. It describes Swartz as both an "Internet pioneer" and "programming pioneer". Both seem exaggerated.<p>Also, I find the whole 'first name terms' thing where the director calls him "Aaron" all the time annoying. I saw the same thing when I was involved with Alan Turing-related events where people would refer to him as "Alan". They did not know him (in either case).<p>Note to future people: when I'm dead don't refer to me as "John" as if I was your friend or property.

My armchair criticism is that a good documentary is both embracing of AND skeptical of its subject. Can this project, given its angle and backing, possibly resist canonization?

All I needed to hear was: "My last feature documentary was We Are Legion: The Story of the Hacktivists." It was an outstanding documentary that managed to accurately describe anonymous --a feat in and of itself given how many entities in the news seemed incapable of doing so-- and didn't shy away from calling out its negative antics and highlighting the negative aspects of decentralized action, in addition to mentioning the positive effects.<p>Given Knappenberger's proven track record thus far, I have every reason to believe this would be an outstanding documentary if funded.

&#62; we have decided in the spirit of open access to release the film digitally through a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License<p>I do not believe that Aaron would have agreed with the use of this non-freeculture license.

Is not a little too much? This young person was unfortunately very ill with depression and that was the primary reason of his death. There are currently dozens of persons unfairly facing prison and they do not kill themselves and they face his destiny even if that means years of prison. I think it's better to honor those persons, they stay alive and fight. Idolizing a suicide victim is wrong. Suicide is a mistake, is a disease.

Do his parents / Taren support this? The title could easily cause some (likely unintended) grief. The internet wasn't too kind to Aaron when he turned there for help when he was down, why he'd be its 'own boy' now is a bit weird.

I personally would find a documentary about weev/Auernheimer much more interesting. I'd throw some decent money at that, just because listening to his mixture of genius and craziness is utterly entertaining.

There is also a Kickstarter for a documentary in progress entitled The Hedgehog &#38; The Hare, about Aaron, Weev, and the CFAA that they were both charged under. I was interviewed for it on Friday. The guys making it are really cool and talented, it's shot really well, and they're only looking to raise $15k (vs the $75k the OP is seeking).<p><pre><code> http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/2120630809/the-hedgehog-and-the-hare-documentary-project-on-t</code></pre>

This doesn't say much about what they've actually done so far. They say it's "currently in production", but don't specify what that means. Have they interviewed anyone? Who? Who's agreed to be interviewed? It's going to be a very different documentary if they interview Taren Stinebrickner-Kauffman and Carmen Ortiz.

I very much wish I would've had the chance to be more involved with and affected by Aaron and his life. As the events have unfolded, I've felt like a bystander in a kingdom who lost a prince I never knew. I didn't know Aaron personally, only being connected by occasionally reading his blog posts and using software he affected.<p>The Kickstarter video for this campaign has given me a depth of knowledge, understanding, and connection when it comes to Aaron and his affect on the world and technology. I haven't come across a source, yet, that was able to illustrate his importance, humanity, and influence. Unfortunately, I don't see an external source for the video.<p>I would invite anyone wishing to know a bit more about Aaron, and the whole debacle, to watch the video.

This morning it was <a href="http://www.atotaldisruption.com" rel="nofollow">http://www.atotaldisruption.com</a>, now it's this. Such amazing projects. So easy to spend lots of money....

I have high hopes from the project and I will most likely back it, but I found the last document by the director: "We Are Legion: The Story of the Hacktivists" some what lacking.<p>I guess it was more about trying to bring the story to your average Joe rather than dive in super deep, I get that they have to cover the basics for larger audience.

I'm in. I'd like to see a documentary about Aaron Swartz.

Internet pionner? Common! This has gone to far, a movie just for that kid? No way! At most he is an entrepreneur with great ideas that had a lame death.

Kickstarter is staring to suck. I used to donate just like that. No. account etc.. Button click donate. Now I'm forced to create an account. Forced to use Amazon. I have a Paypall account. Not possible anymore. It sucks. I wanted to donate 50 dollar. I still might because I find it important to support all those people that care. There is NO need for Kickstarter at all to create barriers.

Isn't he playing a lot with the music in his documentary to make the watchers feel like what they're watching is bigger than what it seems? I really like the audio but I feel it's a little too much play on the emotion. It's no different than any other TV Show, Movie, Documentary,etc., yet it just seems more obvious in this case.

Made me ill to see Carmen Ortiz being made a prosecutor for Boston last week and her making public statements again.

The more I read about Swartz, the more I feel awful what happened to him.

It's a shame they do not accept bitcoin..