He makes great points, but I intuitively feel like certain acts of creating and selling malware should be illegal, even if only by the spirit and not the letter of the law.

If someone manufactures guns, doesn't register them, and knowingly sells them to street gangs, it kind of seems like they're aiding and abetting illegal activities for profit.

Of course there are instances of selling malware you created to parties who generally won't use it illegally, but that's not what's alleged here.

Whether Hutchins truly violated the law, I don't know, but if the allegations are true then he did something very unethical and something I feel should be illegal.

Some malware uses libcurl. Does that make its creator a criminal?

Obviously not.

You're comparing apples and orangutans.