The Idealist
Justin Peters
Scribner
A smart, lively history of the Internet free culture movement and its larger effects on society&#8212;and the life and shocking suicide of Aaron Swartz, a founding developer of Reddit and Creative Commons&#8212;from <I>Slate</I> correspondent Justin Peters.<BR>Aaron Swartz was a zealous young advocate for the free exchange of information and creative content online. He committed suicide in 2013 after being indicted by the government for illegally downloading millions of academic articles from a nonprofit online database. From the age of fifteen, when Swartz, a computer prodigy, worked with Lawrence Lessig to launch Creative Commons, to his years as a fighter for copyright reform and open information, to his work leading the protests against the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), to his posthumous status as a cultural icon, Swartz&#8217;s life was inextricably connected to the free culture movement. Now Justin Peters examines Swartz&#8217;s life in the context of 200 years of struggle...