Aaron's story has some elements in common with Alien Boy's in that both ran up against bullies who have the system (inertia) on their side.
Also, The U.S. Versus John Lennon is another documentary that resonates, with lots of big name talking heads, and lesser-knowns, adding their tribute and perspective to a hero's short life.
Aaron Schwartz was infused with a lot of the same ideals that drove geeks to create a free Internet based on free software, with free as in Liberal Arts (libre).
That MIT and JSTOR were not active prosecutors in the case against Schwartz saves them some reputation, though both were diminished by this chapter.
The Obama Administration comes away scarred, but I think we know it's really just Washington DC and its cult of lawyers under the surface, smug in its being the heavy and having the right to strip search and humiliate whomsoever it pleaseth. Roman heritage. Fascist (literally).
Admittedly, things have been moving quickly lately and politicians used to using a finger-in-the-air approach to sensing political winds have been confused a lot, about which way said political winds are blowing.
This film was shown at OMSI recently.
Although I've fought many of the same battles for open access, I was not specifically aware of Schwartz at the time and most of this information about his battle with SOAPA was news to me. I remember fighting Clipper (so ancient)... he was far more engaged than I with domestic politics.
I was glad to see Tim O'Reilly in the lineup of those appreciative of what Schwartz was hoping to accomplish, in terms of liberating hard won human knowledge from those asserting control by entitlement. A lot of scientists and engineers resent what amounts to slavery as well.
Aaron's contribution to the Creative Commons movement lives on and continues gathering momentum.
Bucky Fuller was always pointing out what he called "LAWCAP" was up to (the post World War Two US legal establishment): creating scarcity artificially, deliberately handicapping technology.
This film shines a light through the dying LAWCAP somewhat transparently. We see its last gasps protesting moral supremacy before an increasingly skeptical audience that keeps wondering when a more intelligent form of life might arise from these ruins.
Idiocracy and LAWCAP have much in common no?
