Bad spying and good spying

[Turn CO Blue]

I just want to be sure I understand the definitions of spying...

Corporate-spying -
The CEO of Hewlett-Packard stepped down in shame and the other executives are at this moment attending a hearing in D.C. to answer for the manner that their private investigators were "spying" on employees to learn who was illegally leaking proprietary information about Hewlett-Packard. **This is still BAD spying.**
(Too bad for them that they weren't execs at Enron, then they would get a pass.)

Spousal-spying -
A female Republican candidate for Attorney General in the state of New York is now in mega big trouble for discussing her desire to hire a private investigator to begin "spying" on her husband whom she long-suspected was having an extra-marital affair, even though the boat she wanted to bug was her boat too. **This is BAD spying (according to NY state law), although it appears to be spying before-the-fact.**

NSA-spying -
The NSA and the Bush Administration have been spying on American citizens and anti-war groups and vigorously defend the tactic even without court warrants in violation of the FISA act, regardless of the lack of evidence of the success of this program by withholding the number of arrests and convictions. These spied-upon persons, whom we have no idea how they were selected as targets and and are possibly or possibly not suspected of consorting with foreigners, members of Al Queda or perhaps could just be people the Administration wants to keep tabs on -- have lost all rights to privacy and of course, should have nothing to be afraid of...
**This is GOOD spying!**

Just to recap, when the federal government is spying on us -- this is a good thing for which we should all get teary-eyed while waving our national flag and singing God Bless America! When anyone else engages in similar invasion of privacy tactics, well, they are going to be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law and/or hauled in front of Congress.

Do I have it right? I can't keep up with what is good spying and bad spying anymore. How about we just say that all spying (without a court order) is wrong?