I'm not saying any of it is right, but if you're around the hacker community for long (and I have been, on both sides), you'll notice the difference between a kiddie and a gray- or black-hat hacker. Kiddies are despised by all, while hackers at least go for respect among their peers. I guess I should have added a fourth category: virus & worm writers.
It's also funny how hackers can lose respect by switching sides. This happened to the famous hacker group l0pht, makers of l0pht Crack, who became @stake, then bought by Symantec. Workin' for The Man.
All you are doing by messing with them is proving that they bet wrong.
But then you also get the situation of hackers who break in, do no damage, then notify the owner (even if indirectly) of what happened and how to fix it before somebody more malicious comes around. Like Adrian Lamo who just put himself in the New York Times' op-ed contributors list.