[pdonis]

MIT could have stopped this circus at anytime.

The report gives plenty of evidence that doesn't support that contention. It looks to me like the prosecution didn't care what MIT or JSTOR thought.

[chaostheory]

Yes but it would probably weaken the prosecution's case at the very least.

[pdonis]

it would probably weaken the prosecution's case at the very least

I can see one thing that would have weakened the prosecution's case: if MIT had been able to say definitely that Swartz's access to the MIT network was authorized. However, I'm not sure MIT could have said that definitely.