It really depends on your legislation, and also how much you allow yourself to be governed by unjust legislation. For example people like Rhizomatica are building internet / cellphone infrastructure on a free-software stack without (to my knowledge) caring at all about patents (good).

On the other side of the world Freifunk community network in Germany has in i believe illegal activities to protect their users, and have fought up to the supreme court for that. Sorry i can't really provide a source as i don't speak german but it has something to do with secondary liability.

So overall, please never let anyone dictate all the good you should do. Especially not lawmakers and lawyers.