That's not what "hacker" means. An Hacker is some person who enjoys tinkering with systems. You mean "cracker".
Federal prison for what was effectively WGET'ing something that was, again, readily available. Still, in the eyes of the public and the law, hacker and cracker are the same thing. The guy is a racist liar but he didn't deserve federal prison. His conviction was later vacated on a venue technicality, which sucks, because had it been overturned in a higher circuit with the judge offering an Opinion, case law would have been set and Aaron Schwarz would have at least some vindication[1].
[1] In no way am I comparing the character of these two men, just the injustice they both suffered at the arms of the technically illiterate law enforcement/legal system. If I were a medical doctor who was before the board being judged for malpractice, I wouldn't want a jury of 12 of my 'peers' deciding my fate - I'd want other doctors.
Everybody repeatedly says this while ignoring his behavior during and after obtaining the information, which is what he was really convicted on. He said so himself.
My attempt to summarize the new meaning of the word hacker is "any person who employs (especially technological) ingenuity to solve a problem".
Full explanation: https://scott.arciszewski.me/blog/2014/08/cause-and-infect-w...