[shpiel]

Both. If hacker who discovered bug in a system should have reported it, instead of exploiting it.

However, the analogy is flawed because if you find a loophole in the law and it is discovered you are usually not liable. If, however, you find a "bug" in an inadequately secured system you are still likely to be liable for exploiting it. Similarly, if you find physical security exploit in a building (a broken window, unlocked) you can still liable for taking advantage of it (trespassing, etc).

However, you point was about "admiration" vs. "contempt." This is obviously a matter of opinion, but I don't share admiration for hackers who take advantage "exploits" without at least attempting to report or taking some other "good faith" action. Neither writing software nor governing a society is easy. Finding and reporting "bugs" is a helpful and productive activity, exploiting "bugs" is not.

[law]

Except patent trolls are not even close to the first groups of people to notice this "bug." Many "white hat hackers" came first; there are many law review articles published concerning the flaws in the patent system. It's not like Congress didn't know about it. They, like always, decided to punt. This is their wake-up call.

[jp--1]

It's the difference between someone who has a lot of exposure to software bugs deciding 1. this is something we need to work to fix versus 2. this is a potential way to make money as long as it stays broken if we take a role as middlemen in the problem.

I'll detail the analogy more in another comment below.