Aaron Swartz: A Review of his Revolutionary Beliefs
Introduction
Aaron Swartz was a young revolutionary, originally fixated on coding and the internet in the early 2000’s. Swartz spent one year at Stanford, using his spare time to work on a start up called Infogami, a website designed to manage visually interesting content. Infogami sparked interest in his entrepreneurial side, and soon Swartz dropped out of Stanford to seek funding for his website. After a series of other projects, Swartz eventually sold Infogami to popular content site Reddit, but soon left, citing his disdain for the traditional office work structure.
Independently of his entrepreneurial ventures, since a young age, Swartz had always questioned society and authority. He rebelled against the traditional education system, and felt everybody shouldn’t accept the way society was, but instead should constantly search for ways to improve it. One of Swartz’s major philosophies pertained to access to knowledge: he believed that everybody, everywhere should have access to knowledge, specifically targeting academic journals locked behind paywalls as the biggest perpetrators of this belief.
“Real education is about genuine understanding and the ability to figure things out on your own; not about making sure every 7th grader has memorized all the facts some bureaucrats have put in the 7th grade curriculum.” — Aaron Swartz
In an attempt to provide free access to these journals, Swartz attempted to download the entirety of JSTOR journal from MIT’s server, with (likely) the intent of publishing it online. He was arrested for this, and while facing the possibility of an extreme sentence, committed suicide.
Response to the Film
Swartz’ life and beliefs, which are captured in the documentary ‘The Internet’s Own Boy’ (link), made me reconsider my stance on piracy, and specifically the availability of information to the public. I have never questioned why piracy laws exist; in my mind, the concept was the same as locking a store at night to prevent theft. However, in the context of academic journals, the film completely shifted my thinking.
One parallel Swartz illustrated was libraries. There are public libraries all over the nation because it is important to provide access to education to everybody in society. This made me reconsider journals as well: if we believe that it is paramount to provide free access to education, why should that change online? I would argue that the most ground-breaking, and likely modern, work is published through databases such as JSTOR. Why should access to this information be locked behind paywalls, provided mainly through universities and subscriptions? As someone who has had access to this information in both high school and university, it never struck me as an issue. However, after watching this film, I agree with Swartz — as society advances across many fields, it is our duty to provide access to anyone who wishes to obtain that information.
While this film has made me consider my stance on this issue, I do realize the many barriers to making making information more publicly available. I understand that the size of publishing industry, and how much revenue is driven by these academic journals. An article in the National Center for Biotechnology Information provides a deeper dive into the issues that prevent ‘open-access’ to these journals, largely pertaining to the difficulty with disrupting an entire industry.
However, I urge the government to reconsider laws regarding open access to academic journals. Knowledge should be available to those who desire it, and money should not disrupt that.
