That's my point though, he certainly didn't go to jail, did he? These are still new enough that a person could mask any legitimate hacking attempts in the guis

That's my point though, he certainly didn't go to jail, did he? These are still new enough that a person could mask any legitimate hacking attempts in the guise of "I didn't know I couldn't do that". So you get to be as malicious as you'd like, and no one's going to come after you, lest an Internet mob forms or something.