Review of The Internet's Own Boy: The Story of Aaron Swartz (2014) by Not M — 10 Sep 2017
The first half of this documentary tells an interesting tale of a young man with programming talent and a lot of potential. It also spoils the conclusion so I will as well: Swartz commits sucide when facing felony charges for copyright infringement. The actions that led to that prosecution make for a good 45 minute story.
Unfortunately the second half is a cross between filler and issue advocacy. It features a lot of people saying that SOPA (the Stop Internet Piracy Act) as proposed at the time was a badly-written bill. Which, perhaps it was. But this was not a quality presentation on the issue of piracy and oegislation. More importantly, it's not part of the story other than the fact that Swartz cared about it.
In the end, Aaron Swartz should have used a little self-restraint in his campaign against copyright. And perhaps fittingly, the director should have done so as well.
This review of The Internet's Own Boy: The Story of Aaron Swartz (2014) was written by Not M on 10 Sep 2017.
The Internet's Own Boy: The Story of Aaron Swartz has generally received very positive reviews.
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