Year ago this month, the young Internet Freedom activist and groundbreaking programmer took his own life. He was just 26 years old. He died shortly before he was set to go to trial for downloading millions of academic articles from servers at mit. He was facing up to 35 years in prison and a 1 million fine. We will play excerpts of the film and speak with aarons brother noah, his lawyer elliot peters, and the filmmaker brian knappenberger. All that and more, coming up. Welcome to democracy now, democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman. We are broadcasting from park city tv in utah. President obama has unveiled his longawaited review of the nsas surveillance programs over six months since Edward Snowden exposed them to global scrutiny. In a move denounced by privacy advocates, obama refused to end the bulk collection of telephone metadata, saying only he will modify it from how it currently exists. I am therefore ordering a transition that will end the section 215 bulk Metadata Program as it currently exists and establishes a mechanism that preserves the capabilities we need without the Government Holding this bulk metadata. This will not be simple. Undernder obamas proposal, nsa officials would require court orders to access calling records, except in cases of emergency. But it will be up to the Justice Department and congress to work out the details. In his remarks, obama also pledged to stop the spying on foreign leaders, and to increase privacy protections for foreign citizens overseas. X let me be clear. Our intelligence agencies will continue to gather information about the intention of governments, as opposed to ordinary citizens, around the world, in the same way the Intelligence Service ontario the nation does. We will not apologize simply because our service may be more effective. Heads of state and government with whom we work closely, and on homes we depend and on whose cooperation we depend, should feel confident we are treating them as real partners. President obamas plan rejects a number of proposals from his own Advisory Panel on reforming the nsa including a call to require court orders for National Security letters by the fbi. It also ignores the panels call to stop undermining commercial software in order to launch surveillance or cyberattacks. Obama accepted a proposal to establish a panel of privacy advocates to appear before the foreign Intelligence Surveillance court, but only in special cases. Responding to obamas speech, jesselyn radack, an advisor to Edward Snowden and former Justice Department lawyer, criticized obama for leaving the bulk collection of metadata intact. I am happy that the government will no longer be housing peoples records, but that begs the question of why the government should be storing anybodys records at all, and a lot of people might mistake the storing issue for the government not collecting, and the Bulk Metadata Collection Program remains intact. It continues. It, are going to transition but that does not really tell us anything, if they are going to overhaul it in some kind of fashion we have no idea. The point is they are still metadata onass hundreds of thousands of innocent americans. As obama unveiled reforms prompted by Edward Snowdens disclosures, snowden himself faced new attacks from lawmakers and intelligence officials. Speaking to nbcs meet the press, house intelligence chair mike rogers suggested, without providing evidence, that snowden is a russian spy. This was a thief who we believe had some help, who stole information that the vast majority had nothing to do with privacy. Our army, marines, have been datadibly harmed by the that we now believe is in the hands of nation state. There is a reason he ended up in the loving hands of an agent in moscow. I do not think that is a coincidence. The website buzzfeed meanwhile has published an article featuring anonymous intelligence officials called americas spies want Edward Snowden dead. It quotes one pentagon official saying, quote, i would love to put a bullet in his head. He is singlehandedly the greatest traitor in american history. An nsa analyst also tells buzzfeed, quote, in a world where i would not be restricted from killing an american, i personally would go and kill him myself. A lot of people share this sentiment. West virginia has lifted its ban on consumption of tap water following the Chemical Spill that contaminated a major part of the states water supply earlier this month. But despite the lifting of the ban, dozens of people were treated at local hospitals over the weekend for symptoms of chemical exposure. Pregnant women have also been told to continue using bottled water as a precaution. As the ban was lifted, the Company Behind the spill filed for bankruptcy. The move will grant Freedom Industries at least a temporary reprieve from lawsuits. It also could allow the companys owner, j. Clifford forrest, to retain control of his assets while escaping liabilities. Forrest is listed as a founder of a new Shell Company called mountaineer funding, which will ostensibly run Freedom Industries without having to assume legal responsibility for the spill. Four people have died and scores have been injured in explosions at industrial plants in two states. Two workers were killed and at least 10 others were injured, some critically, at an animal feed plant in omaha, nebraska. Omaha fire chief Bernard Kanger said the building suffered major damage. This was a large building with significant structural damage. Sorry, 2 00 p. M. This afternoon, we went from a rescue mode into a recovery mode. That means we have slowed down our operation. The chance of finding any victims that are alive is no longer there, and now it is a recovery mode where our efforts are to secure the building, though in, retrieve the victims, and search for additional but that might be in the structure. Meanwhile in madill, oklahoma, two workers burned to death after their plants furnace exploded. U. N. Secretarygeneral ban ki moon has withdrawn an invitation for iran to attend the syria peace talks after pressure from the United States. A spokesperson said iran had reneged on a pledge to support a Transitional Government in syria, the basis for wednesdays meeting in switzerland. A series of meetings and telephone conversations, Senior Iranian officials assured the irantarygeneral that supported the goals, the secretary is disappointed by public statements that are not at all consistent with the stated commitment. He continues to urge iran to join the global consensus behind the geneva community. To that it has remained outside, he is concluded the gathering will dissipate without iransl continue with out precipitation. X bans move came just one day after he had announced irans attendance. That prompted demands by the u. S. And saudi arabia for the un to rescind irans invitation, and threats by the Syrian Opposition to boycott the talks. The dispute over syria comes as iran and six world powers have begun implementing the agreement that slows the Iranian Nuclear program in exchange for relief from international sanctions. The International AtomicEnergy Agency has confirmed iran has begun capping uranium enrichment and converting its stockpile into reactor fuel. In return, iran will begin receiving the first installment of billions in frozen oil revenue. In afghanistan, the taliban has launched a pair of deadly attacks on western targets. 21 civilians were killed when a suicide bomber and then armed fighters attacked a popular restaurant in kabul. The dead included 13 foreigners, four of them employees of the united nations. Secretary general ban ki moon paid tribute to the dead. This is another sad moment where ourited nations distinguished four colleagues have been killed by terrorist attacks in kabul. This is totally unacceptable, and it is a violation of International Humanitarian law. Be accountability. As we mourn the terrorist attack, we remain committed to Peace Development of afghanistan. Preks the kabul attack was the kabul attack was followed on monday by another Suicide Attack on a u. S. Base in southern afghanistan. One u. S. Soldier and nine militants were killed. The blast left heavy damage to a number of u. S. Drones and helicopters. Dozens of people were killed in iraq over the weekend amidst the countrys worst spate of violence in six years. Multiple bombings hit the capital baghdad while iraqi forces battled with al qaeda militants in anbar province. The u. S. Meanwhile is set to begin training iraqi soldiers in jordan for their fight in anbar. The pentagon has also announced a new shipment of weapons and ammunition to the iraqi government. Voters on the japanese island of okra now i have reelected a manner opposed to a military base. There was an agreement that would move the base to a more rural location, but there is been a push to move the base altogether off of the island site Environmental Concerns and sexual assaults by u. S. Soldiers. The mayor campaigned on a pledge to Block Construction of the replacement site. The government of Prime Minister swing abe had tried to the election in favor of the opponent by offering the prospect of hundreds of millions of dollars in public funding. Back in the United States, a pennsylvania judge has blocked the States Election law requiring voters to show photo identification for the fourth time. Pennsylvanias law allowed voting only to those who could produce a state drivers license, Government Employee id or a state nondriver id card. It has been blocked on three prior occasions but still remains on the books pending state appeals. On friday, Commonwealth Court judge Bernard Mcginley said the law violates safeguards of a free and fair election. And the political controversy surrounding new Jersey Governor Chris Christie continues to grow with new accusations of political intimidation. Over the weekend, the democratic mayor of hoboken, dawn zimmer, claimed she was told her citys access to Hurricane Sandy relief funding was contingent on her approval of a christiebacked Development Project. Speaking to msnbc, zimmer said the threat came from christies Lieutenant Governor, kim guadagno. The fact is the Lieutenant Governor came to hoboken, pulled me aside in the parking lot and she said i know it is not right, these things are not connected, but they are, and if you tell anyone i will deny it. The bottom line is it is not fair for the governor to hold sandy funds hostage for the city of hoboken because he wants me to give back to one private developer. I cannot give a windfall to one Property Owner because the government wants me to. Iwill tell you, i feel like am literally between a rock and a hard place. That was the new jersey Lieutenant Governor. Was one of the first two back the administration. On monday, new jerseys lieutenentant governor, kim guadagno, denied making the threat, calling zimmers allegation false and illogical. Zimmer met with federal prosecutors on sunday and says shes prepared to testify in court. The Development Project in question was tied to a law firm represented by david samson, a close christie ally and chair of the Port Authority of new york and new jersey. Christie is already facing a political fallout from the disclosure samson and other Christie Associates and aides were involved in the deliberate closure of lanes to the George Washington bridge last year. And those are some of the headlines this is democracy now, democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman. We are broadcasting from park city, utah, home of the Sundance Film Festival, the largest festival for independent cinema in the United States. This is our 5th year covering some of the films here, and the people and topics they explore. Today, we spend the hour with the people involved in an incredible documentary that just had its World Premiere here last night. Its called the internets own boy the story of aaron swartz. It comes as aaron swartzs loved ones and friends mark the one Year Anniversary of his death. It was just over a year ago, on january 11, 2013, that the young Internet Freedom activist took his own life. He was 26 years old. This is a clip of aaron from the film. I mean, i, you know, feel very strongly that it is not enough to live in the world as it is, take what you are given, and follow the things that adults told you to do, your parents told you to do, and society told you to do. I think you should always be questioning. I take a scientific attitude that everything you learn is provisional. Once i realized there were real, Serious Problems in fundamental problems i could do something to address, i did not see a way to forget that. That was aaron swartz in his early 20s. By that time aaron was already an internet legend. At the age of 14, aaron helped develop rss, really simple syndication, which changed how people get online content, allowing them to subscribe to different sources of information like blogs and podcasts. He also helped develop the Creative Commons alternative to copyright, which encourages authors and publishers to share content. He founded a company, infogami, that merged with reddit, which allows users to collectively rank and promote contributed content, and is now one of the most popular websites globally. In 2010 he became a fellow at Harvard Universitys edmond j. Safra center for ethics. It was around this time that aaron used the internet at nearby mit, the Massachusetts Institute of technology, to download millions of digitized academic articles run by a nonprofit Company Called jstor. Aaron believed the articles should be freely available online. Although aaron didnt give or sell the files to anyone, the federal government filed multiple felony charges against him. At the time he committed suicide, aaron was facing 35 years in prison, a penalty supporters called excessively harsh. Now, despite promises of reform, the Computer Fraud and abuse act used to charge swartz remains unchanged. A bill proposed by congressmember zoe lofgren, called aarons law, remains stalled in committee. It is meant to ensure victimless computer activities are not charged as felonies. On the sunday after the 1 Year Anniversary of swartzs death, the Hacker Group Anonymous attacked a number of mits websites and posted messages criticizing swartzs prosecution and calling for a reform of internet regulation. The message said, quote, we call for this tragedy to be a basis for a renewed and unwavering commitment to a free and unfettered internet, spared from censorship with equality of access and franchise for all. The same weekend, a group of activists inspired by swartz also launched what they called the New Hampshire rebellion, a twoweek walk across the state to protest government corruption. Campaign finance reform was another one of many issues aaron cared deeply about. In a minute well be joined by aarons brother noah swartz, his lawyer elliot peters, and by brian knappenberger, the director of the internets own boy the story of aaron swartz. As well as his father robert swartz. But first, i want to play an extended clip from that recalls a happier time in aarons life as activist. It begins with trevor trimm of the Electronic Frontier foundation. Bill intended to curtail the Online Privacy of music and movies, but it took a sledgehammer to a problem that needs a scalpel. Only a handful of us said we are not for piracy either, that it makes no sense to destroy the architecture of the internet in the name of fighting piracy, and aaron swartz got that right away. The freedoms guaranteed in our constitution that our country had been built on would be suddenly defeated. Any ushnology instead of greater freedom wouldve snuffed out fundamental rights we have always taken for granted and i realized we cannot let that happen. I do not think anybody beaten. Sopa could be he was one of the most prominent in the community. It was like striking a match, it was being blown out, striking another, it was blown out, and finally managed to catch enough candling. Black,pedia when craigslist went black, members of congress started rushing to issue statements retracting their support of the bill. When, as hard as it was for me to believe, after all of. His, we had won the thing everybody said was impossible, the thing some of the Biggest Companies had written off as a pipe dream had happened. We did it. We won. This is an historic week in internet politics, maybe american politics. Fixed the people in washington and capitol hill received more email and phone call than they received about anything. Extremely exciting moment. It was the moment where the internet had grown up politically. It is easy to feel like you are powerless when you march, you yell, and nobody hears you, but im here to tell you today that you are powerful. Thats a clip from the internets own boy the story of aaron swartz that recalls a happier time in aarons life as activist. We also heard from his friend david siegel and his friend ben winkler. When we come back well be joined by aarons brother noah and his father robert. Parke broadcasting from city, utah, from the Sundance Film Festival, where a film on has just premiered. Stay with us. [music break] [music break] extraordinary machine by fiona apple. Aaron swartz reportedly said it was his theme song. This is democracy now , democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. I am amy goodman. We are broadcasting from park city, utah, where the Sundance Film Festival is underway. Were spending the hour looking at the life of the young internet activist aaron swartz. It is one year after he tragically took his own life, and now a new film about him has premiered at sundance, called the internets own boy the story of aaron swartz. We are joined now by aarons father robert and his brother noah. Aaron swartzabout and what you feel is most important for people to understand. There are a lot of things to understand. It is complicated. I think he was interested in making the world a better place and changing the world for the better. I think that is all we have to do and can do to remember his legacy. He took his own life. He committed suicide just over one year ago. Talk about the circumstances leading up to his death what he was facing. Onwell, he was facing trial felony charges from the federal reallyent, and a vindictive, and, in many respects, nearly sadistic prosecution by the federal government, which turned his whole life upside down, drained his financial resources, and terrified him with the prospect of destroying his future. H, you, too, are a computer programmer. You have grown up in this household with computers since you were tots. Talk about the significance of a arons work. He thought firmly he should work on what was most important in the world at any given time, and he felt he could do this through computers and technology. Much of his work in the last four years had been around this. With demand progress and the sopa protest, he built a whole framework, specifically for demand progress, but for any activist organization that wants to send an email list, be able andend actions to people, sort of revolutionize the space with technology, in addition to working on things like secure drop. Explained secure drop. Secure drop is a tool to protect journalists is just journalistic sources by allowing them to submit articles through an encrypted connection. A you have organized hack thons. Explain what they are. We decided there was work to by people that he had worked with the needed help, so we organized a number of hack athon to help people figure out what they could do with technology and with activism. So, we organized a number of them, and the idea is to have them either yearly or twice a rons work. Tinue aa worldviewlk about his. It is hard to say that as a fiveyearold he had a worldview, but he really did worldview. I find these questions a little difficult. His worldview seemed to me to be normal and ordinary. When people are asking why he acted the way he did, it just seems to me peculiar because he was the way everybody would. He was curious. He was certainly very interested in computers. A deep question are, question are, questioning school and its role . A i do not think that is particularly deep question. There are much more serious deep questions than that. Just clear. Like father, like son. Aaron grew older, the kind of work he did, truly remarkable, dit,of the founders of red but moving on to talk about what happened in 2010, how you came to know what happened when he was arrested, and the weight of the state. Well, i was i had landed San Francisco for some meetings and i had gotten a call that he had been arrested, and was just shattered by the news. I could not really think that all the rest of the day, and tried to learn more about what was going on. I guess, initially, on the one hand, we were devastated because any notion that he would be thested and be involved in criminal Justice System was completely incomprehensible, but on the other hand, the notion was we could get this resolved in some rational way. As time went on, it became clear that it was much more complicated than we ever imagined and much more difficult, and the weight on aaron in particular was events as we try to struggle to resolve this. What you came to understand he did. What you came to understand he did. Tor is and what he did. A repository for scholarly journals. If you take something that the american mathematical associations journal, jstor makes that available electronically on a subscription basis to academic libraries and dominantly predominately. He did not produce the articles. The articles are produced by free for free by the edited byand they are academic societies in general for free. Is notforprofit, but nonetheless they charge both universities and their subscribers and individual users for access to those journals. So, it is very different than, movie, where there are people who are paid to produce the content. The people who produce this content are never paid, and i never met an academic who wants to see their work behind a pay wall. The notion that the knowledge of mankind, that is provided for free, should be behind it pay wall is completely wrong. Did. Plain what aaron so, aaron downloaded a torstantial portion of the js database, or at least that is what is alleged, onto a computer. Comments to turn to from aaron himself made at the university of illinois at urbana, champaign, in october of 2010. Stor. Oke about j i will give you one example of something important you can do right here at your own school, it just requires that you are willing to get your shoes muddy. I assume you have access to a wide variety of scholarly journals. Party much every Major University pays these licensing fees feast to get access to scholarly journals the rest of the world cannot read, and they are substantial, so substantial that people who are studying in india instead of the United States do not have this access. They are locked out from all of these journals, from our entire scientific legacy. Part of these Journal Articles go back to the enlightenment. Every time somebody has written scientific paper, it is been digitized and put in these elections. That is a legacy that has been brought to us by the history of people doing interesting work, the history of scientists, it should belong to us as a commons, as a people, but instead it has been locked up by a handful of forprofit organization to try to get the maximum profit a can. They can. There are good people trying to change this, encouraging people to publish as open access, available on the internet, for download by everybody, for free copying, perhaps even with modification. Suicide, there were deep condolences expressed, and they wrote that the case is one they regretted being drawn into from the outset since the mission is to foster widespread access to the world body of scholarly knowledge. At the same time, as one of the largest archives of scholarly literature in the world, we must be careful stewards. To that end, aaron return the data he had in his possession, in jstor settled claims june, 2011. Beefstor did not have a placearon, but mit a you worked for you are part of the community and your father did as well. My father did not. Your father did not, but you did. I still do. Role. K about mits they brought in the federal authorities, worked at the direction of the federal authorities rather than as was which they did with the other instance of downloading academic journals that was going on at the same time, disconnecting the computer and stopping it, they put a camera to build a case against him, and then continue to collaborate and cooperate with the u. S. Attorneys office in the making of that case where they fundamentally stonewalled us in terms of inquiries. We created we did with them behalfrvene on aarons and advocate that the case be dropped in a similar fashion to jstor, which went to the u. S. Attorney asking that the case be dropped, and they were refused. You have presumably, a way to talk to the higherups. You had worked there for years. What was the response to you . T their response was that mi was neutral, which was nonsense. Why is that nonsense . Because they cooperated with the prosecutor. They provided the prosecutor evidence with how to subpoena a warrant. They violated any number of laws, including the computer onsd and abuse act, aar Fourth Amendment rights, the massachusetts wiretap statute, statute, amongp others, in the way they receded in the case, and they also refused preceded in the case, and they also refused to cooperate with us, give us evidence, and we had significant difficulty in getting them to respond, when we asked them to behalf,e on aarons they said they were unable to do that because there were multiple different perspectives on m. I. T. s part and therefore they must stay neutral. The report makes clear that m. I. T. Did not remain neutral, and worked with the government. H, what would you like to now . I. T. Do lots of things, mainly change the way they deal with this, sort of, wasteful hacking that goes on at m. I. T. Playful hacking that goes on at m. I. T. All the time. At Something Like this happen where a student just got a slap on the wrist . Things happen like this at m. I. T. If you are an m. I. T. Student, you can get out of the way. If you are not, this happens. If you are an m. I. T. Student that does this off campus, you get the result that aaron did, which is a very overprotective response from the university, trying to distance themselves from any sort of backlash, or association with, you know, not illegal, but questionable activities. Partner joined us about one week after his suicide and i asked her to talk about him, and how the upcoming trial affected him. Was the most dedicated to fighting social injustice of anyone that i ever met in my life and i loved him for it. I used to say why dont we do this thing that will make you happy, and he used to say i do not want to be happy, i want to change the world. Open access was one of the causes he believed in, but it was far from the only one. He fought during the course of this twoyear ordeal, leading the fight against sopa and the internet censorship bill, which nobody thought would be defeated when it was first introduced and anaren and millions of others together managed to fight back. He did that all while under the burden of this abuse, bullying and false charges. Just the funniest, most lovely person. Sorry. Children. He loved reading out loud. It was one of his favorite things. He tried to read me robert caros robert caros biography of lyndon johnson. We did not get that long. Wasof his favorite books harry potter and the methods of rationality. We would read that to each other. What that was aarons partner, taren stinebrickner kauffman, joined us on democracy now about a week after his death last january. After the break, well be joined by aarons lawyer as well as the bob, if youut, could talk about his goals and the Computer Fraud and abuse act, a little more about it, be androns law would why it is stuck in committee and what you think needs to be done. Well, i do not really understand congress that well to explain why things do not get through, but gridlock in congress is very wellknown. And the Computer Fraud and abuse act makes it a felony to violate website, so,of a for example, if you give your hbo password to someone else, both of you could become felons, and the revision of the act, among other things, is to change it so that this act cannot be used by prosecutors to destroy aron. E like a in the end, he could have pled and maybe gotten six months in jail. Than is more complicated that, but yes. He would have pled to a felony. . Hy would that mean so much it is incomprehensible, the notion that he was a felon and should go to jail for something that was clearly not illegal and he did nothing wrong. He was innocent. To be railroaded on this basis distortion and corruption of the criminal Justice System. , what do you feel people can do to continue aarons legacy . In the film and in one of the clips a says you might feel powerless, but im here to tell you you are powerful, and the stories im trying to do with thon, a lot of people have been frustrated with Edward Snowdens leaking, frustrated with how the world message isaarons there are things we can do about this. We can actually have an impact, and we can see the change we want to see in the world by participating rather than by feeling helpless and useless. So, watching the documentary, i workaron, and all of the that he did, and all of the work that i could be doing and all of us could be doing. That is the most important message. Bob, as you watch the premiere of the internets own of your ownory sound, with hundreds of people yesterday. What were your feelings . Just been completely shattered. I wanted to i both thank you both for being with us, robert swartz, noah swartz, the father and brother of aaron swartz. When we come back, we will find out more about the legal case against aaron, what happened in the last months of his life, and then the filmmaker who did the remarkable film. ,his is democracy now democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Back in a minute. [music break] [music break] forbidden colors. ,his is democracy now the war and. Org, peace report. I am amy goodman. We are broadcasting from the Sundance Film Festival in park city, utah. Premiered a new film called the internets own boy. I want to play another clip. Hearthis extended clip, we from the inventor of the world howard. , aaron himself, sig andard professor les an author, activist and friend of aarons. Aaron was trying to make the world work, trying to fix it. He was ahead of his time. It is shocking to think that accountability is so lax that they do not have the basic statistics of how big the spying program is. Thing if theye said we know the number of telephones, but not exactly how many real people. They said we cannot give you a number at all. That is scary. Well that is scary. They put incredible pressure on him, took away all of the money he had made, trendy takeaway is physical freedom why did they threatened to take away a all of his freedom. Why are they doing it . Why are they going after people that tell the truth about all sorts of things, from banks, work, just to government transparency. Secrecy serves those that are already in power and we are living in an era of secrecy that coincides with an era where the government is doing a lot of things that are probably illegal and unconstitutional. Those two things are not coincidence. It is clear that technology has been developed not for small countries overseas, a writer for use in the United States. But for use in the United States. Asked the spying program goes back to the nixon admin is the spying program goes back to the nixon administration, but theres never been this moment to point to to say we need to galvanize opposition today because today is where it matters. It mattered for a long time. He thought he was doing what was right to produce a world that was better. I guess the one thing that i would say to people who are feeling that for whom the black dog is visiting, is that aarons problems did not get solved when he died. Even now as we try to honor his legacy, it is us, not him. The one thing that being alive tells you is you have the power to make things better. Isnetizen exit of that internets ownhe boy. It is one year since aaron swartz tragically took his own life. We are joined by brian knappenberger, the director of directed we also are legion. Brian, why did you make the story . I was moved by his story on so many levels, his contributions to internet history, rss. Vision, youh his mentioned this world of you at a very young age. I think what happened after he reddit was interesting because he turned his back on startup culture. We have a startup culture that is about creating companies and selling them. Explained. He was one of the founders of reddit. He started a site called infogami that merged with reddit, and one conde nast bought them, karen became a 19 yearold, probably more or less i do not know how much he made, but he was a very rich 19 yearold. That startup culture did not sit well with him. It did not merge well with his sense of social justice and the kind of political area that he wanted to go in. Startup culture often says it wants to change the world, but it becomes a slogan of sorts. Tois really about build flip, create a company, sell it to the big corporation, and do the whole thing again. That part of his life was really interesting to me. He shifted to using his skills toward to political organizing, the causes that he really cared about. , explain whenrs you got involved in his life. You are presented google, you represented lance armstrong. I got involved after the government filed what is called a superseding indictment against him, and he was charged with her team felonies including wire fraud and violations of the Computer Fraud and abuse act, that could have put him in jail for a long time, so i met aaron swartz in the middle of 2012, and it took over his case from other lawyers that were handling it, and started getting ready to defend it and try it, and i got to know aaron, his dad, and even better the u. S. Government that was chasing him. Talk about the pressure that aaron was under, the 35 years of prison he faced, the 1 million fine, the plea bargain offers that were being made, and his attitude toward this all. The preface to that was in my view he was innocent. I do not think he committed a crime and i think we could have successfully defended him at trial, but he was under tremendous pressure, facing 13 felony counts, and they had added charges to ratchet up his exposure to jail. The prosecutor insisted that in any plea he would have to go to jail and the government would seek jail time, and i said to him the proper disposition of this case is to tell him to duke to do Community Service in brooklyn by Teaching High School students in brooklyn about computer programming, and after he has done some of that, dismissed the case, and he said they said absolutely not, he needs to plead guilty to 13 felonies and go to jail, and he never struck me as a good candidate for federal prison. I thought the thought was frightening, tremendously cool and unfair, and given my line of work i was very eager to fight them and defend because he deserved it. Talk about the prosecutor. Was a computer crimes prosecutor. In name was steve hayman boston. I said you are not much of a computer crimes prosecutor if you do not have a computer crime to prosecute, and when m. I. T. Referred the case to a task force that included a secret service agent, he immediately got involved, he took over the case, they turned it into an investigation, and they tried to turn it into the biggest case they could for their own purposes with no regard to what was fair or even any appreciation for who aaron swartz was. I am not even sure that they cared. You warned the prosecutor that they could break aaron swartz. He was aware there was a. Ertain fragility they were trying to put pressure on him. I am not saying they were trying to cause them to commit suicide, but they were trying to bring him to his knees said that he would uncle under the pressure they were putting on him, and they were aware of that. They were maximizing the pressure on the young man, and to what end, i really do not understand. Prosecutor in the case said stealing is dealing, whether you use a computer command or a crowbar and whether you take documents, data or dollars. Sco, facile, ignorant. They charged him with fraud is that he was stealing something forprofit. He was not. He was an authorized user of the m. I. T. Computer network. He did not hack into anything. He certainly downloaded more of itor then they wanted, but was not to steal anything. These are a bunch of old academic journals that exists now for the purpose of increasing peoples knowledge. To call aaron a thief is just pandering to the lowest instincts of viewers or listeners of carmen ortizs press conference. We just played carmen ortiz, the u. S. Attorney who steve hayman worked for and we played a clip of aaron talking about his philosophy and jstor, and being concerned about the disparity of intellectual resources for people in india versus the United States, brian. Absolutely. Ofwas a concern, the walling information behind a pay wall. You are involved in the february 11 action. Explain what it is. We are leading up to some action, part of a group called stop watching this, formed to protest nsa overreach and this surveillance state that has been revealed to us by Edward Snowden. Amazing to listen to him one year before Edward Snowden talked about nsa surveillance. When we found that clip, it was chilling, actually. He was talking about nsa overreach, the amount of search they were doing and surveilling at that point. Those clips, about one year and the and a week or so before revelations. He said there has never been a moment that really sparked action, and he just did not live to see the moment. I just want to thank you you both for being with us. , this filmenberger is called the internets own and story of aaron swartz lawyer. Eters, his that does it for todays broadcast. Democracy now is looking for feedback from people who appreciate the closed captioning. Email your comments to outreach democracynow. Org or mail them to democracy now p. O. Box 693 new york, ny 10013 august 9, 1999. On december 8, 1997. November 30, 2002. I was hit by a drunk driver. I lost both of my legs. A stranger tried to kill me with a hammer. Our 7yearold son, evan, was murdered after signing up for basketball. I was severely beaten in a hate crime. I was raped. When your child is murdered, its devastating. You have to rethink life again. It just keeps on running over and over in my head all the time. While i was in the hospital, a friend told me about victims services. They helped me with my medical expenses. They helped me with counseling. A victims advocate stood by us through the court process. Victim assistance paid all my hospital bills. I needed them to fight for me while i was fighting for my life. With the right help, you can move on with your life. I will dance the salsa again. Justice isnt served until crime victims are