Aaronsw indicted for hacking MIT network to download millions of JSTOR docs

This is almost too good:

"As Swartz entered the wiring closet, he held his bicycle helmet like a mask to shield his face, looking through ventilation holes in the helmet."

The title is inaccurate.

It is alleged that he signed up for guest accounts on their network with different laptops, changed his MAC address and re-registered if the IP he was using was blocked (by JSTOR) or cut off of the network (by MIT), and finally connected a laptop in a basement networking closet.

I guess you could say that is 'hacking' in the unauthorized access sense, but not in any meaningful sense. It isn't breaking and entering if someone repeatedly trespasses somewhere (say, banned from a store) even if they change their clothes to avoid detection.

Why would he do this? What is the purpose of having all those documents?

So he allegedly goes out and buys a laptop just to do this heist...and then he blows his cover by doing a scrape fast enough to apparently bring down some of the MIT servers? Why was he in such a rush?

Information wants to be free.