What you did may have been legal but not lawful.
It's kind of like a city that uses eminent domain to condemn property at a cheap price so that the new landlord can make a killing leasing out space to stores. While the previous landholders get the shaft when forced to sell at fire-sale prices, all in the name of the public "good" because the city can raise more taxes. The city and the new landlord feel "boy-howdy" was that ever good!
However, the eminent domain trick the city uses may be legal but it's NOT moral.