Hey, I know I violate a number of laws, probably every day. I even cut the "do not remove" tags off my pillows. In paractice, most copyright laws are enforced against people who sell content without authorization.
DSS leases smart cards. Periodically they reprogram or replace them. To the best of my knowledge they have never criminally prosecuted anyone who was not selling counterfeit cards.
You make a big deal about the quality of encryption. This is a bogus argument. If your door is locked, the law does not require you to have a state-of-the-art lock. Any old lock provides you with the benefit of law.
There is an interesting side note to all this discussion. Your TV also broadcasts. This fact has been used by cable companies to locate people using unauthorized cable services. In fact, every electrical appliance you use broadcasts a signal that could be detected. Particularly computers. It is probably possible to pick up your unencrypted computer video being broadcast by your monitor.
At some point, society draws the line and says this is private. Infrared cameras can see through clothing (hey, you are broadcasting infrared, so why can't I film you or your children and email the photos to a few thousand of my friends?)
The answer to all this is that civilized people do not steal and do not peep. OK, they do, but it isn't moral or ethical, and when caught, there are consequences.
It isn't about the quality of the lock.
It is about thoughtcrime. Suppose you put a lock with a design flaw on your house. Using the design flaw to burglarize your house is clearly a crime. But suppose I posted the information about the defect on the Internet? Crime? Or thoughtcrime?
This isn't just theoretical. I can defeat many locks people think are secure. The information of how to do this is publicly available. I don't carry anything that could be considered a burglarious tool because I can quickly make a lockpick from a streetsweeper bristle - very easy to find if you know what you are looking for. Any NT machine without encrypted file systems or physical security is not secure, period. You don't need drills and explosives any more. All you need you can carry in your head.
By the way, an AT&T Labs researcher just published a fundamental sploit common to almost all key-operated locks. With knowledge of that sploit, you can make a master key without examining a lock cylinder. Should that publication have been suppressed or criminalized?