[tragictrash]

This is an incorrect assessment. The analogy is a postcard written in a language you don't understand.

The outside of the letter is a kind of lock, like encryption.

You don't violate the laws for translating the French on the back of the postcard to English if you happen to see it right?

Opening the letter is illegal, and breaking that lock is where the act becomes a crime. He didn't do that. He only translated what was delivered to him.