[ciropantera]

A gun has many purposes, some legitimate (law enforcement, "defense" etc), others less so. A code change that allows the company to do illegal things has no legitimate purpose.

I think what's up to debate is to what extent the developers were lied to regarding the purpose of the code. Maybe they were told it was for testing purposes only, or the higher ups managed to convince them that it's ok despite them questioning it. I suppose those things will come up during investigation and will certainly affect their sentences, but I don't think they will be off the hook that easily.