Fincher also took a page from Benjamin Button and used computer-generated technology in The Social Network.

FORBES: Zuckerberg Portrayal In 'The Social Network' Misses

He was arrested in 2011 and charged in a scheme in which he allegedly logged into the computer network at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and using it to download millions of academic journal articles from a database called JSTOR, owned by a nonprofit group.

WSJ: Legal Case Strained Troubled Web Activist

To prosecutors, the 26-year-old Swartz was a thief whose aims to make information available didn't excuse the illegal acts he was charged with: breaking into a wiring closet at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and tapping into its computer network to download millions of paid-access scholarly articles, which he planned to share publicly.

WSJ: MIT to release documents about activist Swartz