On "No Harm - No Foul" Insanity

TechDirt reported this a few days ago: "Back in April, a judge ruled that Wells Fargo should not be penalized for a data breach because there was no evidence that those who acquired the data had done anything criminal with it."

So, let's try this for size, folks :-)

a. I borrowed your car when you were away (by picking the lock) and then returned undamaged. I also put the gas in. No car theft here, right?

b. I came to a store and took a TV without paying for it. I just watched a show and returned it. No crime, right?

I did think that the trend is to sync the online world with the offline, but it appears that this ruling goes in the opposite direction...