This is a documentary that will stay with me for a long time, what will I see in his life after watching this film? Or what does it say to me now?

Firstly, we can comment on a personal point of view: is Aara guilty?

But individually or collectively, I don’t think he is guilty; of course, if it comes to copyrights and interests, sharing and keeping, there is no excuse, and his behaviour is not necessarily absolutely right.

A pure idealist

But for a pure idealist, it’s something he could and definitely did go back on, simply out of a sense of morality that he felt he should keep. as mentioned in the Guerilla Open Access Manifesto article：

Information is power. But like all power, there are those who want to keep it for themselves. The world’s entire scientific and cultural heritage, published over centuries in books and journals, is increasingly being digitized and locked up by a handful of private corporations. Want to read the papers featuring the most famous results of the sciences? You’ll need to send enormous amounts to publishers like Reed Elsevier.

There are those struggling to change this. The Open Access Movement has fought valiantly to ensure that scientists do not sign their copyrights away but instead ensure their work is published on the Internet, under terms that allow anyone to access it. But even under the best scenarios, their work will only apply to things published in the future. Everything up until now will have been lost.”

Sood on the opposite side of the government

By sheer idealism, Aaron overlooks the important fact that the actual interests of those in high places are touched. The copyright laws and regulations around the sharing and inheritance of information are difficult to measure and judge, and it’s possible that they only cover some things at this stage. Aaron Swartz stood on the opposite side of the government, which profited from this situation for the sake of pure idealism. As netizens have noted, perhaps this idealism is what really scares the government, who have had enough of individuals like Assange and don’t want another Robin Hood in the field of knowledge. However, not many people like Tim Berners-Lee in the world have opened up the technology of the World Wide Web to the world for free, not for profit, but for the sake of sharing it with all mankind. Therefore, resistance is inevitable when some individuals are not on the side of vested interests.

A joint protest

There is no doubt that the Internet has permeated every aspect of our lives. Even bills such as SOPA, which are promoted by huge interest groups and political forces, are no match for the millions of ordinary people who use the Internet. If an Internet company supports SOPA, users can vote with their feet to keep it alive; if someone shakes the foundations of the Internet, the major Internet companies won’t hesitate to stage a joint protest, which can have a magnifying effect hundreds of times stronger than a street protest. the promoters of SOPA didn’t realise how much resistance there was to a bill that went against the tide, and neither did Aaron. that the power of the Internet was quite politically mature, and he didn’t get his hopes up too much at first. In any case, it was a big event in American political history, and Aaron became a big player in that big event.

Yet this victory did not change the outcome for Aaron. The prosecution relied on the outdated Computer Fraud and Abuse Act to increase the felony charges against Aaron, and Aaron refused a plea that would have brought relief. After Aaron’s arrest, JSTOR dropped the charges against him, the government has been trying to make an example of him, and MIT, once considered the birthplace of hacktivism, has remained neutral and sat on the sidelines. His free and unfettered life was disturbed by this case, and Aaron, who was sensitive and fragile by nature, also fell into depression, and he eventually chose to commit suicide before the case went to trial, without leaving any last words. Many people felt frustrated and angry about this, and the surging emotions were mixed with regret for the talented young man, dissatisfaction with the government for killing him off, disappointment with MIT for betraying the spirit of hackers, and accusations against this sick society.

Aaron Swartz will probably never capture the public’s attention like Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, and Zuckerberg, who are capable enough to acquire huge fortunes, but instead of doing so, he chose the road less travelled. Like Tim Berners-Lee, Aaron doesn’t care about making money, he only cares about how to truly realise the freedom of information and empower the people, he is a pure idealist. He could see through the irrationality of this society at a glance, however, his thoughts were too forward thinking and he was too sensitive, and in the battle to fight against the powerful system with the power of one man, he was eventually stifled by this era. The era of the Internet revolution has passed, and nowadays not only the government wants to restrict freedom, but also the closure and monopoly of many Internet companies have built a high wall. Openness, freedom and sharing, which used to represent the core values of the Internet, are being marginalised, and Aaron must have felt a certain degree of loneliness and helplessness in the midst of it all.

Beneficiaries of the event

Jack Andraka, a 14-year-old from Baltimore, discovered a method to detect pancreatic cancer early by reading an academic paper on JSTOR that was promoted by Aaron before his death.

“This is why Aaron did was so important this truth of the universe is not only something that policymakers use to figure out it is the thing that gonna keep your kid from dying of pancreatic cancer and without access, the person who might come up with a thing that’s got your number on it may never find that answer.”