Legal opinion

It occurs to me that the very fact that Phorm/BT sought legal advice regarding their position surely must mean that they were well aware that they were treading a fine line between legality and illegality. Sure, most companies will pass stuff to the company lawyers to make sure that they havn't inadvertently breached. But, to get external legal opinion logically points to internal doubts about the their position. This in itself doesn't point to intent to breach the law, but it does mean that they had knowledge that they are at least sailing very close to the wind. In this case they apparently sailed too close and breached.