| Not to mention that he intended to distribute
  | the articles for free, turning this into a
  | billion dollar case

No where does it mention this in their case against him. Calling it a 'billion dollar case' is over-stating the fact. Especially since JSTOR withdrew their complaint against him and recommended that the US government back off.

The people that he supposedly hurt said that they don't care, and to leave him alone. Attempting to use the 'harm' to them as justification makes no sense.

> The people that he supposedly hurt said that they don't care, and to leave him alone

From the perspective of the state, that matters only as far as the details of "Can I still get the evidence needed without victim's support" and "How should I prioritize this case from here?"

Often going through with a prosecution is just a further hassle for the victim (a process of "re-victimization"). In real life sometimes the trial would reveal further unpleasant things about the victim to public view. Maybe the victim wants to take care of it themself. Maybe they genuinely don't want any consequence to befall the suspect.

But the responsibility of the state is to society at large. A prosecutor wouldn't refuse to charge a serial rapist that they had enough evidence for even without the victim's support, because of the risk to society if the serial rapist were allowed to go free.

While Aaron was charged with far different things, he had shown a propensity for flouting the law on this particular topic, and escalating each addition time he did so, so it's not really that surprising that the D.A. would decide to continue with the case, especially given that they still had some of the other 'victims' supporting the prosecution.

I say this all as a proponent of Open Access (certainly would have been nice while I was in college instead of having to use my university's proxy servers all the time). But the D.A. doesn't get to decide which laws are on the books and which aren't (as others have mentioned, this is how white people were mysteriously never charged of racial crimes in the Jim Crow-era South).

JSTOR only withdrew their complaint cause he got caught. If Aaron succeed they certainly wouldn't have dropped it. My point is his intent was certainly criminal in terms of billions of dollars in the eyes of the law and public, even if they aren't in mine and most of HN.