with intimidation and overreach this is how the family of the celebrated internet freedom activist arash watts have described his recent surfside schwartz faced decades in prison after federal prosecutors allege he illegally downloaded millions of academic papers and planned to distribute them for free he has frequently interviewed transcend our own marina takes a closer look now at the man and his skates. he was a computer prodigy an online optimist co-founder of the social news website reddit and he was also a frequent guest on our team but twenty six year old aaron swartz was also the target of a federal computer hacking case and the trial was scheduled to begin next month that beginning will never come because swartz committed suicide inside his seventh floor brooklyn apartment in this building behind me on friday morning according to police he hanged himself and left no no behind and according to reports his girlfriend fountain in the bedroom with a belt wrapped around his neck now swartz was arrested and indicted two years ago on allegations of breaching a computer network at the massach