
Aaron Swartz Documentary – The Internet's Own Boy - corny
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/26788492/aaron-swartz-documentary-the-internets-own-boy-0
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jgrahamc
I find the blurb on this Kickstarter very off putting. It describes Swartz as
both an "Internet pioneer" and "programming pioneer". Both seem exaggerated.

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).

Note to future people: when I'm dead don't refer to me as "John" as if I was
your friend or property.

~~~
bostonpete
> when I'm dead don't refer to me as "John" as if I was your friend or
> property

What do you want people to call you -- "Mr. Graham-Cumming"? I wonder if that
preference is based on your age or based on British culture (or maybe a little
of both?). I think it's common to refer to virtually everyone in our society
by their first name -- Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Warren Buffet, etc. You never
hear them referred to as anything except their first names. Maybe I'm
misunderstanding your point...

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jgrahamc
I guess if someone were writing a hagiography of me I'd prefer that they use
"Graham-Cumming", e.g. "Graham-Cumming was best known for knowing too much
about GNU make and..."

Could be age or culture related; could also be that it's almost midnight and
I'm patching another fucking WordPress vulnerability.

~~~
rangibaby
I agree that using someone's first name can be overly personal and insincere.
OTOH last name comes across as formal and stuffy.

How about using their internet handle?

~~~
laumars
That depends on whether it's a personal handle or a public alias. eg an IRC
nick on a private channel would be no different to their first name or a real
life nickname amongst their friends. However a public handle like _dmr_ (in
the case of _Dennis Richie_ ) is -in my opinion at least- little different to
how recording artists and actors often choose a pseudonym (eg _David Robert_
Jones uses the stage name _David Bowie_ )

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taylorbuley
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?

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sliverstorm
I think the "avoiding canonization" ship has long since sailed.

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ritchiea
Slate and the New Yorker both did a great job avoiding canonization in their
Aaron Swartz profiles. But those two publications have been the exception.

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aspensmonster
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.

Given Knappenberger's proven track record thus far, I have every reason to
believe this would be an outstanding documentary if funded.

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sethish
> 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

I do not believe that Aaron would have agreed with the use of this non-
freeculture license.

~~~
fyi80
Explain? Is this some offshoot from the original Creative Commons licenses
that Aaron co-invented?

~~~
rmc
A licence like that, applied to software, would not count as Open Source, nor
as Free Software. Hence it is not Free in spirit.

~~~
mpyne
On the other hand, even if you remove the NonCommercial provision it is still
not equivalent to Open Source or Free Software, as the _actual_ source is not
being distributed, merely the end result.

Sure, it's easier to mashup video than compiled executables or libraries, but
even CC is not quite equivalent to a software license.

~~~
Kliment
Well, it says in the campaign text:

WE HAVE ALSO DECIDED AFTER THE FILM IS COMPLETED TO RELEASE THE RAW INTERVIEW
FOOTAGE AND POST IT TO THE INTERNET ARCHIVE IN SAN FRANCISCO THROUGH A SIMILAR
CREATIVE COMMONS LICENSE.

(caps in original)

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mistnight
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.

~~~
katherineparker
I don't think he's being idolized because he committed suicide. He's idolized
because of who he was and what he accomplished. He still deserves recognition
even though he committed suicide and his recognition isn't based on his
suicide.

~~~
Kylekramer
Looking at the general reaction around HN to Swartz before and after his
death, I find it very hard to ascribe his recent idolization to anything but
his suicide.

He was certainly deserving of praise, but his post-suicide lionization (and
subsequent Carmen Ortiz bashing) does send some icky messages regarding
suicide and its effect on one's legacy.

~~~
bcj
I'm inclined to agree with this view. Regardless of how he died, I think there
would have been a bit of idolization, but I have trouble imagining someone
making this documentary had he died in a car accident.

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jacquesm
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.

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stfu
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.

~~~
notthemessiah
I'm guessing you're probably referring to this, which is, as of now, $8k from
its goal: [http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/2120630809/the-
hedgehog-...](http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/2120630809/the-hedgehog-and-
the-hare-documentary-project-on-t)

~~~
stfu
Thanks for pointing that out! Didn't really know about that. Going to pitch
in. Would love to see it more focusing on trolling and the culture of lulz.
But if it has to be on the serious side, that's good enough for me to support
them.

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sneak
There is also a Kickstarter for a documentary in progress entitled The
Hedgehog & 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).

    
    
       http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/2120630809/the-hedgehog-and-the-hare-documentary-project-on-t

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zck
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.

~~~
jamornh
The trailer that they have there seems to show that they've interviewed quite
a few people. But yes, they did not mention who they will interview as a
result of the funding and what the funding will allow them to do. They should
definitely touch on that.

It would be good if they can get both sides and views in the same documentary.

~~~
Keyframe
_It would be good if they can get both sides and views in the same
documentary._

Not necessarily. It depends on what the story in documentary is about.
Absolutely nothing wrong with one POV in documentaries. Real devil is editing
and narration which isn't structural in its function. By structural narration
I mean narration written only to shorten some prologues to sequences in the
story structure itself. With narration and editing you can distort your story
in any way possible. I found out, through experience, that with sensitive
subjects it's best to avoid narration altogether and tell story only through
editing. Careful editing, where you weave story only through what you've been
told by carefully selected interviewees.

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randomdrake
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.

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.

I would invite anyone wishing to know a bit more about Aaron, and the whole
debacle, to watch the video.

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d0m
This morning it was <http://www.atotaldisruption.com>, now it's this. Such
amazing projects. So easy to spend lots of money....

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Morphling
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.

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.

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

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darkslave
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.

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Wall
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.

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Kaivo
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.

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ck2
Made me ill to see Carmen Ortiz being made a prosecutor for Boston last week
and her making public statements again.

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

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

