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>Sure, you can do that. That, and arrest the person too because, you know, they broke the law.

I think it's more relevant that what they did was willfully malicious. I probably regularly violate laws that I'm not even aware of, but the fact that I'm not intentionally doing harm to anyone establishes some kind of innocence.

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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ignorantia_juris_non_excusat

"The rationale of the doctrine is that if ignorance were an excuse, a person charged with criminal offenses or a subject of a civil lawsuit would merely claim that he or she is unaware of the law in question to avoid liability, even though the person really does know what the law in question is. Thus, the law imputes knowledge of all laws to all persons within the jurisdiction no matter how transiently."

IANAL, but this sounds like the idea behind Mens rea: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mens_rea

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