I've been in continuous operation with my businesses since 1986 and I guarantee you that I've been compliant with the laws as much as I'm aware of them. The major transgressions involving business assets were parking tickets, speeding tickets (< 10 km/h excess by an employee of the company in a company vehicle). Other than that not so much as a copied piece of software. Oh, and we were once late with a tax filing because the bookkeeper messed up, they absorbed the fine.
Running a small business in a way that is compliant with the law is stupidly easy: know the law.
Now, there is one thing that I did that I know full well was against the law and that came about as a result of me getting very angry about some stuff that happened to a friend of mine. In that particular case I saw my actions as akin to civil disobedience. In the end it got superseded by others doing the same thing much better and at a much larger scale but I would have fully accepted the consequence of breaking the law in that case. But it would have been a conscious decision to break the law.
Incidentally: not knowing you are breaking a law is no excuse for breaking the law, ignorance is not a valid defense.