While it's cool that Aaron managed to do it all in 9ish minutes (archive of the video here), I don't get why Aaron didn't do it more slowly, since that very high amount of Internet traffic in such a small window of time was what made JSTOR notice.
He was a naive internet idealist. He truly believed that Information Wants to be Free. He didn't actually realize they'd bring the full force of the law against him for furthing the cause of universal free education.
He probably assumed that no one would care because he just wanted academic articles and the Just World Fallacy
Also, did you see how tan he was while he was doing it?
And let us never forget that Carmen Ortiz and Stephen Heymann were responsible for his death.
I found a YouTube link in your comment. Here are links to the same video on alternative frontends that protect your privacy:
