[ericathegreat]

That's a tricky precedent to set though, isn't it? If you do sufficiently good work elsewhere in your organization, you can break the law without penalty? That's like McDonalds claiming that they should be allowed to mistreat their workers because they also run a children's charity.

Doing a right thing doesn't grant you immunity when you do a wrong thing. And there was no question that what they did was illegal. Many thousands of people told them that the moment they announced they were planning to do it, they didn't even need legal counsel to point that out. They did it anyway.

[a1369209993]

Rather, if you do sufficiently good work in the process of breaking the law (as the IA has done here), you should be able to break that law without penalty.

[ericathegreat]

So... If I smash in the windows of a Nike shop, steal all the shoes, then give them to homeless people, I'm excused? No crime here?

[a1369209993]

If your doing so somehow has no adverse effect on the shop, sure! That's why copyright infringement is laudable, and stealing is wrong: the latter means the person stolen from no longer has any of the shoes.