On January 11th, 2013, Aaron Swartz — the wunderkind genius who contributed much to the early development of the Internet, including Reddit, Creative Commons, RSS, and more — committed suicide. He was just 26.
Aaron Swartz was driven to take his own life by aggressive prosecutors enforcing tragically defective technology law, law that is still on the books. Aaron’s story is a case in point of our two-tier legal system, where the rich and powerful are treated with kid gloves and the ordinary person suffers disproportionately to the crime. The touching documentary The Internet’s Own Boy does him some small justice. The film is a must-see not just for libertarians but also for anyone in the technology field.