I'm wondering what the legal and ethical stances are on accessing botnots? Technically, the researches didn't "hack" into the infected computers because they r

I'm wondering what the legal and ethical stances are on accessing botnots? Technically, the researches didn't "hack" into the infected computers because they registered a domain they calculated would be next up on their flux algo. But none the less, they were receiving all kinds of sensitive. Finally, I also wonder whether they didn't shut down the bot net (or change the flux algo, to prevent the gang regaining control)?