There is a theoretical ethical/legal view of things - and then there is a real-world practical view. If I was dealing with a company who already have lawyers, t

There is a theoretical ethical/legal view of things - and then there is a real-world practical view. If I was dealing with a company who already have lawyers, then sure, I'd go the "right" way and use the legal system (on the basis the legal system actually works...). But a bad client, who can't even run their small business in a competent manner ... and who can't hire better lawyers than me... the use of brute force (vs the legal way) is sometimes the wiser choice. It is a risk to do such a thing, so you have to know the odds, but it could save you some headache. The legal system is nothing but a tool and a shit tool at that. People who know how to manipulate it are better off than those who think it is more than just a badly made tool - and the most frequent manipulators of it are the bad actors. I have realized the IT community is at some disadvantage in some sense, compared to non-IT people, because we have such a implicit faith/trust/belief/respect in rules - we spend all day trying to teach computers to follow rules. The vast majority of humans on the other hand have little respect for abstract rules and will do whatever they want, coming up with justifications and rationalizations after the fact. Outside of IT, you have to realize the only rules you have to follow is 'not get caught'. I'm not saying don't act ethically, I'd encourage it, but a lot of people are not interested in acting ethically at all, especially when it is detrimental to what they want. So you have to learn how to deal with them effectively unless you want to drive yourself crazy.