They were being sentenced to prison but not for scraping, their business were a fraudulent economic activity. They broke the terms of buying those tickets by impersonating legitimate customers. I don't see the connection with scraping.
Hard to say...they were charged with both wire fraud and "hacking" (CFAA).
The EFF said this, so they seem to agree that it set a bad precedent, even for those just scraping.
"Under the government's theory, anyone who disregards – or doesn't read – the terms of service on any website could face computer crime charges," said EFF civil liberties director Jennifer Granick in a press release at the time. "Price-comparison services, social network aggregators and users who skim a few years off their ages could all be criminals if the government prevails."
