Personally I object to calling it hacking (it the popular/mass media sense).
If a company hires me to inspect their systems, and it's not shady (i.e. everything seems legitimate), then I'm not hacking anything. It's really no different to working on a CRUD (well, it's more interesting :)).
There might be some legal provisions (DRM laws, some EULA, etc.) that muddy the water. But that doesn't change the fact, that I can't find any ethical problem with what the Dragon Sector folks did[1]. And for me hacking is something unethical--criminal aspect is secondary.
If a company hires me to inspect their systems, and it's not shady (i.e. everything seems legitimate), then I'm not hacking anything. It's really no different to working on a CRUD (well, it's more interesting :)).
There might be some legal provisions (DRM laws, some EULA, etc.) that muddy the water. But that doesn't change the fact, that I can't find any ethical problem with what the Dragon Sector folks did[1]. And for me hacking is something unethical--criminal aspect is secondary.
[1] based solely on the articles I read