Here, the government is pursuing criminal charges for someone who broke into locked facilities and committed a textbook case of computer fraud to do something that might be morally defensible. If he weren't illegitimately accessing these articles, it'd be a different story.
If you have a tip about an unsolved murder that you want to report anonymously, and you break into someone's house to do so, good on you for reporting the tip, but you still broke into someone's house.
Are you suggesting the case against Swartz is as serious as a burglary in Cambridge, Massachusetts? Or less serious, since he did not damage a lock or deprive the owner of the use of anything? Or is your argument that this is legitimately a high-profile federal case?
If you have a tip about an unsolved murder that you want to report anonymously, and you break into someone's house to do so, good on you for reporting the tip, but you still broke into someone's house.