[maskedmelon]

He broke the law and is responsible for his actions. Whether he agreed with the law or the practices of publishers of academic papers is irrelevant.

He could have worked within the law to establish an alternative non-profit publishing service for academic papers. Instead he chose to take a short cut and take something from someone else, because he felt he (and others) had a right to it.

Had he not taken the easy route, he would probably still be alive and might have lived to realize his dream of freer access to knowledge.