He was charged with wire fraud, computer fraud, unlawfully obtaining information from a protected computer, and recklessly damaging a protected computer.

Granted, the motivation was the copyright infringement, but to do what they did they needed to dress it up.

> Granted, the motivation was the copyright infringement

And this is why it is correct to say that he was persecuted for copyright infringement. Noting that he wasn't charged with anything related to copyright doesn't change the story, it only makes it less agreeable.