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The Internet's Own Boy: The Story of Aaron Swartz | full movie (2014)

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Documentaries
YouTube
3 HN users recommended this documentary3 months2015–2026 score 3.5
Years with an HN recommendation, 2007–2026

HN recommends it as the essential documentary for learning about Aaron Swartz and the case that shaped hacker culture.

The full documentary 'The Internet's Own Boy' about programmer and activist Aaron Swartz, with interviews with family, friends and internet figures. It covers his work on access to information and the legal case preceding his death.

“here's a must-watch documentary, especially if you belong to the hacker culture” (HN, 2020)

1 strong recommendations · 2 recommendations · 2 citations · Documentaries

5 Hacker News comments

From the HN archive; up to 20 kept per video, favoring different commenters. Recommendations first.

@pcdoodle Jun 2023 Recommends
on HN thread Reddit's New Office Space (2006)
"The internets own boy" is a decent documentary if you want to learn a bit about Aaron. YT Link: [this video] Thanks OP for posting this aaronsw.com link.
Decent documentary to learn about Aaron Swartz.
@rglover Jan 2025 Recommends
on HN thread Aaron Swartz and Sam Altman
Aaron was the OG. If you've never dug through his blog, do yourself a favor [1]. Also make some time to watch The Internet's Own Boy doc about him [2] and look up some of his talks during the SOPA shenanigans. RIP. [1] [link] [2] [this video]
Documentary about Aaron Swartz.

Citations, criticism and jokes

@kaizenb Mar 2026 Cites it
on HN thread Freedom is the only thing that matters. Living freely. Creating freely
● Freedom Index by Country 2026 [link] ● The Internet's Own Boy: The Story of Aaron Swartz [this video] ● Short film Wim Wenders: The Keys to Freedom [link] ● What I Misunderstood About Freedom [link] ● Living in an unreal world : A short film By Adam Curtis [link] ● The Matrix Ending Explained: A Guide to Freeing Your Mind [link]
Listed among resources on freedom.

Video list and Hacker News comment labels from HackerTube (prompted by @karpathy), released under ODC-By 1.0, built on the open-index/hacker-news archive. Hacker News data is provided by Y Combinator; comments remain the work of their authors. Video titles, channel names and thumbnails belong to their creators and are shown via YouTube. HackerTube Watch is an unofficial edition. Data export of 2026-10-31.

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