What is Cheating? My Thoughts on "SpyGate"

What is cheating? I had a fun conversation with a friend of mine where I called Bill Belichick a cheater. My friend told me that he didn’t consider him a cheater. He asked me how it was different than scouting a team. My answer was simple, “Scouting is legal, taping the other teams coaches is not legal.” I have quite a few New England fans, and they all seem to be deflecting rather than defending their beloved coaches actions. One guy employed the, “Well, they thought they were being taped, too!” defense.  Numerous others have told me, well they didn’t gain an advantage in the game they were caught in, so it’s not a big deal. I have to admit this bothers me. Maybe, I’m naive. Maybe, I’m just dumb, but I really believe that honor matters. That winning inside the rules of the game matters. To me, if I knowingly break the rules I’m cheating. If there are rules that don’t make sense, then I say change them but until they do, if I break them in an effort to get an advantage I am cheating. If I fail to get an advantage then I am just inept at cheating, but it’s still cheating.
Now, most of these conversations happened before the alleged taping of the Saints Super Bowl walk through. I’ve always wondered how Belichick went from what he did in Cleveland to what he did in New England and I will be the first to admit that ascribing all of his recent success to cheating would be sophomoric and over simplistic but for those Belichick defenders I have a serious question. If it turns out that these allegations are true and that they did videotape the walk through was that cheating? How many rules can you break before it’s cheating? One of the most remarkable things about this run by this team has been those plays where the defender seemed to know better than the receivers what was coming. Those last minutes drives where it didn’t seem the defense could muster anything to keep the Patriots from methodically marching down the field and winning the game. If --and I realize at this point it’s merely allegations-- the Patriots did indeed videotape the Saints walk-through then they should be punished. Belichick should be suspended for at least a season. To me, it is irrelevant if they gained an advantage or not, they broke the rules.
Ok Pats fans and those who wish to defend Bill, tell me these three things:
Was videotaping the coaches hand signals, which is blatantly spelled out in the rules as illegal cheating?
Was video taping (again if it happened) the Saints walk-though cheating?
How many rules can you break before you’re considered to be cheating?

I’ll get to the whole Belichick getting out-coached last night another time.