I never equated anything with assault. I in fact presented using the term "assault" as being melodramatic and an overreaction, just like calling upon the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act in this case is being melodramatic and an overreaction, and which Moxie has never done.
Ahh okaay, hitting someone (as you put it) is not assault now?
Let's cut to the chase. Were they legally free to continue, or not? No. Were they at risk of Aaron Swartz style incarceration if the did? Possibly, since that community also includes among it public interest defenders, political dissidents, journalists, whistleblowers, etc. and we've seen it all before. 50 years imprisonment and $1 million for Aaron Swartz (for a download), a hellish trial he couldn't afford against Goliaths, or plee bargain guilty to a minimum 6 months imprisonment and lifetime exclusion from any political life (which he'd planned) - DESPITE MIT & JSTOR declining to proceed
Was LibreSignal technically doing something wrong in the first place? Debatable. I haven't read that part of Signal's ToS, but it had been implied to be an open community (and certainly they immediately ceased and desisted on request). Was it ethically wrong? Hardly "because what they did was illegal" as you put it, a major crime and DEFINITELY not the equivalent of hitting someone.
The implication that OWS had directly threatened explicit legal action, was too strongly stated and I'm happy to withdraw that (I had another case in mind). Nevertheless, the end result hasn't been all that different for practical purposes.
