I disagree. There is no single incident that caused everyone to love Open Access. Instead, over the last years librarians and activists have been slowly but steadily been making progress in this regard - without breaking the law or contracts.
No, I think it's just that you personally were more exposed to this debate because of that incident. The debate and the uprising have been going on ever since Patrick Brown and Michael Eisen started a petition in 2001 which eventually resulted in PLoS. Many people have been slow to follow them, for many reasons, but the movement has been growing ever since.
I agree that Aaron Swartz's actions have brought more attention to the issues, but I think MIT would object to you calling him "that MIT guy", since he was a fellow at Harvard, not MIT, at the time that he allegedly stuck his laptop in MIT's wiring closet; and the Institute has apparently at least cooperated in his prosecution, if not actively encouraged it.
