netiquette & zone transfers

[Otavio Exel]

hello all,

is it bad netiquette to attempt unauthorized zone transfers?

while experimenting with dns tools in order to get familiar with the DNS
protocol (unix semi-newbye here) I did many unauthorized zone transfers
from servers here in my country (Brazil); after a while I got some
rather hostile messages from the admins of the ".br" domain;

am I doing something wrong that I'm no aware of?
is it really such a crime to attempt unauthorized zone transfers?
is there a related document I should/could read?

beers,

-- 
Otavio Exel /<\oo/>\ oexel at economatica.com.br