The Internet’s Own Boy

On Friday there was no ITC presentation, instead Craig gave us a task of watching the documentary “The Internet’s Own Boy” and answering the questions he had posted on the NMIT Moodle site; which I’ll be answering throughout the rest of this blog.

If you are interested in watching the documentary yourself click here.

Question:  What did he do that got him into trouble?

He downloaded a large amount of research papers/books from JStore through Cambridge University’s network without permission.

Question:  What were the possible motives mentioned in the film for his so called “crime”?

1. He could have wanted to provide free access to the research papers/books.
2. Use the research papers to analyse it for trends.
3. Make a statement by standing up against the non-free access to public records.

Question:   What does each motive imply from a MOREL and LEGAL point of view?

1. From a moral point of view I think that it was completely victimless crime. He was taking research papers and books that should be free in the first place and was possibly going to give them back to anyone that wanted them (for educational purposes).
2. If he was taking the files to analyse them for trends i still think its a victimless crime.
3. From a legal point of view, he downloaded files that didn’t belong to him, which is breaking the law.

Question:  Why were understanding his motives so important?

Because without the context of the situation it would have make him look like he may have downloaded the files for personal gain. 

Question:  How many charges did this end up giving him?

They were trying to charge him with 13 felony’s.

Question:  What was wrong with the SOPA act? 

It was written by lobbyist whose only intention was to benefit large corporations. It also wasn’t reviewed by anyone with any technically knowledge, so no one in congress knew how bad it was.

To view more about what’s was wrong with the SOPA act you can read my previous blog on “Copyright” which is located below.

Question:  Why did It look like the bill would be impossible to stop from passing?

Because it had lots of lobbyist/corporations support and had majority of congress supporting it.

Question:  What were some of the significant factors that helped raise awareness for dismissing the SOPA act?

Many of the large sites on the internet such as Go Daddy, Wikipedia and Reddit started doing “Blackout” days on their websites in protest, which provided large public awareness.

Question: What’s the important message about this victory to those of us in the “new world”?

I personally think the victory message for stopping the SOPA bill was that if everyone gets together and tries to change/stop something they can and everyone’s voice counts.

Question:  “Bringing public access to the public domain”  “books are our cultural legacy”.  What do these statements have to do with his passion … (37:25)

I think these statements showed that he was very passionate about education and the availability of free access to educational content.

Question:  What does q8 have to do with Jack Andraka

Jack Andraka with the availability of research done by previous researchers developed a new way of detecting pancreatic cancer; without this access he wouldn’t have done this.

This provides support for the free access of such research content to anyone who wants it for free so they can potentially do similar things, this is what Aron Swartz was fighting for.

Question:  What’s the most important question on this list? And Why?

I think all the questions on this list are important.

Why? Because If your studying to become an IT professional, all these thing will have an effect on your career; from the access to free educational content to the effects that bills like SOPA, ACTA and PIPA will have in the on the Internet.

All these this are important to have at least a basic understanding of.