Sylvan,

Excellent analysis and comments. However, we differ somewhat in this area, since I see things as going a bit beyond just self-interest.Therefore, the willingness to accept the legal consequences, to me, representsadherence toanotherset of ethics. And no, I'm not arguing that any breaking of laws canbe justified as ethical simply because one iswilling to accept the consequences.The closest parallel that i could thing of would be acts ofcivil disobediance where one commits a "criminal" act in pursuit of a supposedly higher moral goal. But in such situations one cannot expect sympathy from the law or some of their peers, although they sometimes do get it from both.