Piracy

Tsk. Aaron Schwartz was a person, silly - and thus subject to laws in the USA.

Mark Zuckerberg directed his company Facebook to perform the illegal action. Facebook is a corporation - and thus writes the laws in the USA, while of course being exempt to them (barring occasional small fines to keep the rabble believing they're not).

One day maybe the rest of the US public will wake up to the fact that it's a corporate oligarchy and take some action, but I don't think it will be until some really irrefutable and impactful issues occur. Bread and circuses, as they say. Or maybe Walmart and Netflix to update the idiom.