Research or Malice?

CNet has a story about a French researcher who may be jailed because, among other things, he found a bug in an antivirus product and publicized it (along with some reverse-engineered code).

Probably me, but I am never certain when I read critiques of actions like this whether folks believe and acknowledge that this was illegal or not. I suspect they know it is illegal (I am assuming that in this case) and just wish it weren’t.