A bad web entrepreneur walks into a courtroom with a gaggle of lawyers in tow. accuser - "..You spied on customers, sold their data, etc. etc. We just made a w

A bad web entrepreneur walks into a courtroom with a gaggle of lawyers in tow. accuser - "..You spied on customers, sold their data, etc. etc. We just made a whole bunch of laws about that. Bad!" accused - "All that is true, but I have this nag screen, those terms and conditions and all sorts of stuff my lawyers assure me makes all that legal. Those laws should really have been written differently." judge - Oh. Well.. off you go then. Violating the spirit of a rule, in a rule-oriented environment, is not a rule violation. It can even be vindicating. In sports, for example, playing to the rules is often considered a show of craft & skill. Law too. I think the same applies here. There are lines that should never be crossed. But, it's better to keep journalistic ethics principle-oriented rather than rule-oriented. Conditions can compromise a journalist and let the subject dictate things, turning press into publicist as you say. It can also enable journalists to investigate more effectively. The balance has to be determined in a principled way. It can't be litigated.