Aaron Hillel Swartz was an American computer programmer, entrepreneur, writer, political organizer, and Internet hacktivist. As a programmer, Swartz helped develop the web feed format RSS; the technical architecture for Creative Commons, an organization dedicated to creating copyright licenses; the website framework web.py; and the lightweight markup language format Markdown. Swartz was involved in the development of the social news aggregation website Reddit until he departed from the company in 2007. He is often credited as a martyr and a prodigy, and his work focused on civic awareness and activism.
Swartz in 2008
Swartz in 2002 with Lawrence Lessig at the launch party for Creative Commons
Swartz in 2012 protesting against the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA)
Swartz at 2009 Boston Wikipedia Meetup
Creative Commons (CC) is an American non-profit organization and international network devoted to educational access and expanding the range of creative works available for others to build upon legally and to share. The organization has released several copyright licenses, known as Creative Commons licenses, free of charge to the public. These licenses allow authors of creative works to communicate which rights they reserve and which rights they waive for the benefit of recipients or other creators. An easy-to-understand one-page explanation of rights, with associated visual symbols, explains the specifics of each Creative Commons license. Content owners still maintain their copyright, but Creative Commons licenses give standard releases that replace the individual negotiations for specific rights between copyright owner (licensor) and licensee, that are necessary under an "all rights reserved" copyright management.
Lawrence Lessig (January 2008)
Creative Commons Japan Seminar, Tokyo (2007)
A sign in a pub in Granada notifies customers that the music they are listening to is freely distributable under a Creative Commons license.
Creative Commons guiding the contributors. This image is a derivative work of Liberty Leading the People by Eugène Delacroix.