IANAL, but I believe part of the issue is that breaching a hundred million records is one data breach, but exfiltrating a few thousand journals is one infringement per journal.
In point of fact, the prosecutor on Swartz case (Stephen Heymann) had previous authored an article describing how the Internet age allowed crime to scale, enabling hackers to commit thousands of criminal acts per second. It's my personal belief that Heymann wanted to use Swartz' case as a validation of this belief.
(Source: The Idealist: Aaron Swartz and the Rise of Free Culture on the Internet, ISBN 978-1476767727)
In point of fact, the prosecutor on Swartz case (Stephen Heymann) had previous authored an article describing how the Internet age allowed crime to scale, enabling hackers to commit thousands of criminal acts per second. It's my personal belief that Heymann wanted to use Swartz' case as a validation of this belief.
(Source: The Idealist: Aaron Swartz and the Rise of Free Culture on the Internet, ISBN 978-1476767727)