This is the distinction between a crime and something that is illegal. On HN people rarely make the distinction because they think something being illegal makes it a crime.

Illegal means it violates a law. A crime is something that actually harms someone.

Gay marriage may have been illegal, but it was never a crime, for example.

Alas, these days the USA is a very authoritarian culture and the idea that there might be US laws that are themselves crimes to enforce seems alien. But logically and morally it is the case.