Well, this again is a very hacker-centric perspective. Even if it's truly important that someone be able to surreptitiously copy all of JSTOR once in a while for the sake of innovation, who is in a position to let him off based on that?
Plus, putting everything else aside and evaluating him as a hacker, he doesn't come out looking too good. If he'd scraped all of JSTOR without getting caught, it would make a better story. As it is, he attracted a lot of attention, and the report of how he was caught has an air of inevitability to it. JSTOR called up MIT, MIT was looking for him, and he gave them a lot of time to find him.
Plus, putting everything else aside and evaluating him as a hacker, he doesn't come out looking too good. If he'd scraped all of JSTOR without getting caught, it would make a better story. As it is, he attracted a lot of attention, and the report of how he was caught has an air of inevitability to it. JSTOR called up MIT, MIT was looking for him, and he gave them a lot of time to find him.