MadMode

As we mark the new year, I'm right there with Andy Baio:

For me, 2013 will always be the year we lost Aaron. One of the hardest things I've ever written. waxy.org/2013/01/aaron/

In Aaron's account of the 2002 Creative Commons license launch, he wrote:

when I go to a movie, I donate money in the amount I spent to the EFF.

If 2013 is the year we lost Aaron, let 2014 be the year we pick up where he left off. In the words of Lawrence Lessig:

... our fight was his fight. And [...] while only he was Aaron Swartz, we are all now Aaron Swartz.

Every time you go to a movie, think about the impact on free culture:

• Creativity and innovation always builds on the past.
• The past always tries to control the creativity that builds upon it.
• Free societies enable the future by limiting this power of the past.
• Ours is less and less a free society.

I'd like to see lots of other people take this pledge, but I've been matching my movie spending with donations in Aaron's memory (to the EFF, rootstrikers, etc.) for about a year now, and I plan to continue regardless of how many people join me. I picked 26 becase that's how old Aaron was when we lost him:

I will match my spending on movies with donations in memory of Aaron Swartz but only if 26 other people will do the same.

— Dan Connolly, Open Web Advocate (contact)