@cassidyclown @georgia he was downloading so rapidly that it was breaking their system and they took technical means to block him repeatedly, which he circumvented. when he couldn't circumvent them anymore he installed a device on MIT's network. He got such a big sentence because they overcharged him, but also because he didn't accept their plea bargain because he was trying to make a point about his innocence. He should have since he was guilty.

The bad guys here are: The Obama Justice Dept which was directing the severe punishment from behind the scenes, and whose attorney managing it framed the prosecution in blatantly incorrect way, such as suggesting breaking and entering and framing it as "stealing" (neither are relevant to the case as he neither broke into the closet nor stole anything.)

To a lesser extent JSTOR: who alleges they didn't even want the criminal prosecution to happen and intended to file no civil charges (this could be a lie) but ultimately, this happened because they insist that they need to charge ridiculously exorbitant fees to host free data.

To a degree Aaron Swartz: responsible for his own circumstances, if he just rate-limited his fucking script none of this would have happened.

My analysis.