Well-known coder and activist Aaron Swartz was arrested Tuesday, charged with violating federal hacking laws for downloading millions of academic articles from a subscription database service that MIT had given him access to.

Based on whats been written here I don't think this prosecution is appropriate.

Federal law prohibits unauthorized access. There is a difference between unauthorized access, and unauthorized use of access that you already have. One is a crime and the other is a breach of contract.

This law criminalizes unauthorized access to a computer system because of the potential impact on the privacy and integrity of the data in computer systems as well as the integrity of the computing infrastructure.

Unauthorized use of a computing service that you have legitimate access to does not raise these kinds of implications. Although steps were taken to circumvent technical barriers that were put in place to prevent over use of the system, these barriers are not the same thing as access controls. This person was not prohibited from accessing the system.

Feds Charge Activist as Hacker for Downloading Millions of Academic Articles | Threat Level | Wired.com