I'm not at my best to argue this, since it's evening here and I had a couple of glasses of wine with dinner. But my first instinct is to comment on how the case you're describing is at the edge of the law, where things are naturally fuzzy, as most borders are. So we're talking about an edge case of a metaphor - quite a bit removed from the main topic.
I stand by my previous example - a proper counter-example would be somebody reaching over the fence and stealing something. My main argument is that any password signifies a fence - be it a tall wall or a picket fence. Going beyond it is clearly not ok. Law and custom carve exceptions for white hats looking for security flaws - but both law and custom also specify how those white hats are supposed to behave. And a 3 day ultimatum followed by public disclosure is not it.
I stand by my previous example - a proper counter-example would be somebody reaching over the fence and stealing something. My main argument is that any password signifies a fence - be it a tall wall or a picket fence. Going beyond it is clearly not ok. Law and custom carve exceptions for white hats looking for security flaws - but both law and custom also specify how those white hats are supposed to behave. And a 3 day ultimatum followed by public disclosure is not it.