alt Hacker NewsI mean, it's not the size of the download, it's the unauthorised scraping of community assets strictly against terms and ignoring robots.txt by an American corporation. Resource of a kind that used to get kids threatened with spending most of their life in prison.
But I agree that this kind of theft by US corporations is no longer news.
(Yes, it's theft: they were aware they may not do it and according to the article attempted to get around further restrictions. I mean it's literally even theft of the $3 you mention — you don't have to be in possession the $3 to illegally deprive its owner of it under common theft statutes)
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Scraping of assets from a site that encourages and where staff explains how to and posts scraped assets? Color me sympathetic.
Aaron Swartz pulled down by the legal system for trying to get things accessible for people instead of being blocked by profit requirements.
Companies copying things to make profit for themselves not being held accountable.
Progress is one thing, injustice is another.