The thing is, though, during the pandemic a lot of seemingly rational people became very odd and - to use a front 242 song title - gripped by fear.
I've witnessed this with a member of my own extended family, a married business owner with a child, who became so fearful that we as an extended family had to assign them what was basically a rotating watch, because without someone to reassure them that things were okay they were becoming unhinged and would try and euthanise their pets because they were so convinced we were all going to die.
I do not know why some people became so susceptible to this while others just 'kept calm and carried on' but having witnessed it with my own eyes and heard reliable testimony from others I'm very reluctant to assign blame to an individual.
It's possible that this guy really did think that doomsday was coming and that it was his duty to make sure that everyone could read freely in their last days on the planet.
It was a very odd time and a lot of people are still not able to convincingly explain their actions during that time.
That is certainly a fair point from a psychological effect view, and the meat of the pandemic era was indeed a very weird, very surreal time, but I am unsure "I thought we were all going to die" is a court-admissible defense for illegal behavior. Certainly if you think humanity will be wiped out in a day or two, you could reasonably expect to murder someone without facing recrimination for it... but if society survived, you would definitely not be exempt from responsibility for it.
I mean, not guilty by reason of temporary insanity is a valid legal verdict, so yes, if you really have become unhinged and gripped by fear to the extent that you don't act rationally you are, by the law, exempt from responsibility for your actions.
I've witnessed this with a member of my own extended family, a married business owner with a child, who became so fearful that we as an extended family had to assign them what was basically a rotating watch, because without someone to reassure them that things were okay they were becoming unhinged and would try and euthanise their pets because they were so convinced we were all going to die.
I do not know why some people became so susceptible to this while others just 'kept calm and carried on' but having witnessed it with my own eyes and heard reliable testimony from others I'm very reluctant to assign blame to an individual.
It's possible that this guy really did think that doomsday was coming and that it was his duty to make sure that everyone could read freely in their last days on the planet.
It was a very odd time and a lot of people are still not able to convincingly explain their actions during that time.
So for that reason, I find it hard to judge.