Genuine question, how could a well-formed HTTP request for a URL ever be considered unauthorized access? If I request something and someone responds...shouldn't it be their responsibility not to share important information?
Edit: should have read the linked article before commenting. It totally wasn't, and the charges were dropped...after thoroughly harassing the kid.
The mental and moral model used by programmers ("you own the backend; I own the frontend; if your backend returns stupid stuff to the frontend without me actively breaking into it, that's your fault") is not, as far as I can tell, shared by broader society.
Edit: should have read the linked article before commenting. It totally wasn't, and the charges were dropped...after thoroughly harassing the kid.