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The Good Fight with Ben Wikler

Guardian Piece On Ben Wikler and Aaron Swartz’ “Good Fight”

Listen to this: Ben Wikler and Aaron Swartz’s The Good Fight

Wikler’s increasingly popular political podcast tries to ‘inspire people to get involved in stuff that really counts’

By Lilah Raptopoulos for The Guardian

Aaron Swartz and Ben WiklerFrom the Article:
Wikler was close friends with the free-information pioneer Aaron Swartz, who took his life last January – he was facing up to 50 years in prison for allegedly downloading millions of copyrighted academic articles. Wikler and Swartz began The Good Fight’s predecessor, a radio show called the Flaming Sword of Justice, meant to spotlight people making real progressive changes, in January of 2012. Wikler now hosts the show alone, but each episode still evokes Swartz’s quest to empower people and to fight the status quo…

Without a doubt, start with episode 25: Lawrence Lessig, Aaron Swartz, and the Super Pac to end Super Pacs. Then, check out episode 17: the Nanny Uprising, about a group of women who fought to give nannies and other domestic workers basic labor rights they didn’t already have, and episode 26: Pulitzer winner. Undocumented. American, where journalist Jose Antonio Vargas tells his story of coming out as public representative for other undocumented migrants living in America.

The Good Fight with Ben Wikler

Lawrence Lessig, Aaron Swartz, and the Super PAC to end Super PACs

The Good Fight #25: Lawrence Lessig, Aaron Swartz, and the Super PAC to end Super PACs (How challenge and tragedy inspired a mega-plan to fight money in politics)

Right about the time that Aaron was launching the campaign against SOPA, he was founding “The Flaming Sword of Justice” podcast (what would become “The Good Fight”), with Ben Wikler.

This episode covers how Aaron told Lawrence Lessig that he needed to go a different direction in life, and drop the copyright fight to fight corruption in politics.

From the show (at 11:09):

Ben Wikler: How did you start thinking about this broader fight?

Lawrence Lessig: In every one of my books, I had sort of pointed to this fact, and left it to the side. Even the first book, Code, I was like “here’s what the right policy would be, but, you know, forget it.” And then, as I was writing my last book on copyright, a book called “Remix,” I was in Berlin, and Aaron came to attend the Chaos Computer Conference. He came to visit me at the center where I was, and we had a long talk.

Ben: What year is this?

Lawrence: It was 2006. And so Aaron, you know, sort of said “How do you ever think you’re going to make any progress on these issues so long as there’s this corruption in the way that our political systems works? And I remember being kind of miffed because I wanted to be excited about what I was doing and he was basically the pouring cold water of reality on the fight.

Because, it’s true. We weren’t going to make any progress. But I defensively sort of said to him, “Look, you know, it’s not my field Aaron. I do internet policy, copyright. I’m not going to write a book about corruption of congress. It’s just not my expertise. And he said “Yeah, I get it, as an academic. But as a citizen. It’s your field as a citizen…”

…I was incredibly vulnerable to him. He was someone who I felt I had worked with for a long time. I’m not his father, but it was kind of relationship like that. And so, when your son says to you “Why can’t you’re not as good as you’re supposed to be?” It’s hard to say “because I can’t. It’s not my job.” I thought, “what is my excuse?” Did I really envision the next ten years of my life tweaking and perfecting the argument to show why copyright shouldn’t be extended. And I thought, “OK fine. I’ll give it up. I’ve got tenure. I’ll have money to feed my family. So yes, Aaron, you’re right. That’s what I should do, and that’s what I’ll do.

The Internet's Own Boy - Press

LA Times: Aaron’s Story Cannot Help But Touch You

aaron dark

Critic’s Pick ‘Internet’s Own Boy’ outlines suicide of prodigy Aaron Swartz

By Kenneth Turan for the LA Times

From the Review (July 2, 2014):

“The Internet’s Own Boy: The Story of Aaron Swartz” is an unemotional title for a moving documentary that will leave you heartsick as well as more than a little angry. Whether Aaron Swartz is a personal hero or someone you’ve never heard of until now, his story cannot help but touch you…

Swartz’s death shocked the Internet community because of the aims and tactics of U.S. prosecutors who, the film contends, exhibited considerably more zeal than sense. Hearing from friends, family, colleagues and admirers makes it clear how unbearably sad it is that someone as young and gifted as Swartz felt compelled to take his own life.”

Announcements

YOU DID IT! MayDay PAC Reaches Its 5 Million Dollar Goal

maydayLessig’s Mayday Hits $5M Kickstarter Goal To Fund Pro-Campaign Finance Reform Politicians

By Josh Constine for TechCrunch

Lessig told TechCrunch this week that while his group pushed for the ambitious $5 million goal in one month because “the urgency is to be able to pick the districts and begin the campaign. (Plus I am a bit of a drama queen).” There wasn’t time to waste.

He framed the campaign finance issue as a problem for the tech industry because corrupt politicians threaten innovation and a fair Internet. “We have no protection for network neutrality because of the enormous influence of cable company’s money in the political system…If NN is your issue, then this is why you should see that politic$ is your issue too” Lessig says.

If the “Super PAC to end all Super PACs” hits its next $12 million goal and succesfully gets candidates elected in its 2014 pilot campaign, it plans to raise orders of magnitude more money to elect an an more pro-campaign finance reform congress in 2016, enact reforms in 2017, and defend them in 2018.

 

Takepart.com Articles

Lessig’s MayDay PAC Fights Fire With Fire – 1 Day left!

We’re a little more than 2/3 of the there (shooting for $5 million by July 4 is the goal). But there’s still time!

DONATE NOW

If you’re just sitting down to this now – that’s great! Here’s a short article that will get you up to speed quickly:

Fighting Fire With Fire: Super PAC Raises Money to Reform Campaign Finance

By Isabel Weisz for Takepart.com

From the article:

Lessig’s Mayday PAC is crowdsourcing donations in an attempt to revamp the system and change the way campaigns and elections are funded.

Mayday is also dubbing itself the Internet’s Super PAC, ready to defend the Internet from “a steady stream of threats and challenges to a free and open Internet,” according to the site. Those threats include net neutrality, SOPA and PIPA, and other regulatory issues…

By Friday we’ll see if the MayDay PAC hits its $5 million goal and is on track to end all super PACs with this new super PAC.

Here’s the timeline. The goal is to raise $5 million by July 5. The MayDay PAC aims to get campaign finance reform–minded candidates elected in 2016 and then help them get fundamental reforms passed. If the MayDay PAC succeeds, it hopes to have big money and corporate influence out of politics by 2018—and we might need to rename that date America’s New Independence Day.

MayDay PAC: The PAC to end all SuperPACs

 

Takepart.com Articles

Op Ed By Noah Swartz: My Brother Aaron Changed the Internet Forever

My Brother Aaron Changed the Internet Forever

Noah Swartz is on the organizing team for this year’s Aaron Swartz Day and International Hackathon, which happens on November 8th, all over the world.

By Noah Swartz for Takepart.com

From the article:

So when mere months after his death Edward Snowden released his cache of internal NSA files, and we the public and the media all struggled to understand it and figure out what to do, it was hard not to miss Aaron immensely. It was a surprise of sorts seeing that I wasn’t the only one who looked to Aaron for guidance, and that I wasn’t the only one having a hard time without him. Remember when Wikipedia blacked out to protest SOPA/PIPA? A lot of people wondered why something similar didn’t happen in protest of the NSA, why something similar didn’t happen more recently in the fight for net neutrality. The answer, in large part, is because Aaron isn’t around anymore to do these things. To motivate and guide us.

In a deeply personal way Aaron lives on in me, but similarly his ideals live on in a whole crowd of organizations and people he collaborated with. Demand Progress is still running strong, with David Segal at its helm. The Electronic Frontier Foundation is still fighting for tech law reform, with Cindy Cohen as legal director and Peter Eckersley and Seth Schoen advising it on tech. The Freedom of the Press Foundation is supporting projects like SecureDrop, a tool Aaron helped develop to protect the anonymity of journalistic sources, and Fight for the Future is educating people about net neutrality.

Aaron Swartz International Hackathon website.

The Internet's Own Boy - Screenings

See “The Internet’s Own Boy” In Theaters and Online on June 27th

See “The Internet’s Own Boy” Website for online details.

June 26 – Los Gatos Theater

June 27 Theater Dates:

Los Angeles – Sundance Cinemas

New York – IFC Center

Toronto – Bloor Hot Docs

Chicago – Gene Siskel Film Center

Denver – SIE FilmCenter

Washington D.C. – West End Cinema

Miami – O Cinema

Cleveland – Cedar Lee Theater

Atlanta – Plaza Atlanta Theater

Pasadena – Laemmie’s Playhouse 7

Columbus, OH – Gateway Film Center

JUNE 30

VANCOUVER (Vancity Theater)

ALBANY, NY (Spectrum 8 Theaters)

The Internet's Own Boy - Press

“The Internet’s Own Boy” is a New York Times Critics’ Pick!

A Prodigious Beginning, Then an Early Ending                                               By Jeannette Catsoulis for the New York Times                                      June 26, 2014

Moving and maddening in almost equal measure, Brian Knappenberger’s “The Internet’s Own Boy: The Story of Aaron Swartz” is a devastating meditation on what can happen when a prescient thinker challenges corporate interests and the power of the state.