Look, there are people for whom a felony conviction could seriously ruin their life. If you've spent your entire life trying to be a defense attorney, or you long to join the FBI, a felony conviction ends your dreams.

Swartz wasn't like that. A felony conviction would have prevented him from working at IBM but he wasn't going to do that anyway. For all possible jobs he could have gotten before, a felony conviction would have been a badge of honor or irrelevant.