Well yes, he did break the law of course there is no denying that. But in the spirit of what he did he wasn't malicious in that he kicked off a DDoS with these printers or anything more than that, it was of course illegal but at least those people now know. One of the few internet connected devices that is actually capable of giving some output to inform the owner that something is wrong!

As long as you consider smoking a joint "malicious" too (cause, you know, technically, it's illegal).

Smoking a joint isn't illegal. Possession without licence is.

Seems to be you'd have to possess the joint before smoking it.