Best Justice Money Can Buy

HP Settles with California in spy scandal

By Ina Fried

Staff Writer, CNET News.com

Published: December 7, 2006, 1:53 PM PST

update The California Attorney General’s Office said Thursday that Hewlett-Packard will pay $14.5 million to settle civil charges related to the company’s now infamous spy scandal.

As part of the settlement, which was first reported by CNET News.com on Wednesday, HP will “finance a new law enforcement fund to fight violations of privacy and intellectual property rights” and adopt corporate governance reforms, the Attorney General’s office said in a statement.

“The Hewlett-Packard incident has helped shine a national spotlight on a major privacy protection problem,” Attorney General Bill Lockyer said in a statement. “With its governance reforms, this settlement should help guide companies across the country as they seek to protect confidential business information without violating corporate ethics or privacy rights.”

Wow. Ya gotta love that.

Note, this is separate from the felony charges.

Chairman Dunn isn’t out of the woods just yet.

Spying on people is illegal Patty.

Remember, even Martha Stewart went to prison (sure, sure, Camp Cupcake) and lots of folks liked her. America’s tired of your ‘class’ spitting on the law.

You might want to try on some orange dresses, get used to the color.