The thing that sits wrong with me and this settlement is that 1) it’s not entirely clear that HP violated any laws and if they were accused of that then the AG should have settled criminal charges, and 2) a civil lawsuit settlement presumes that the plaintiff suffered some actual damages. Not only did the State of California suffer no reputation or physical damages, it’s not evident that the legitimate participants in this scandal did either (minus Dunn, but that’s self-inflicted).

In other words, while I understand that HP settled this to make it go away and the financial penalty they agreed to is literally a rounding error for them, I don’t believe that bending over for Bill Lockyer really does anything but encourage more of these frivolous actions. Let me also say that I think the conduct of the Board in this episode is inexcusable but there is a difference between being reprehensible and being illegal.

H.P. Will Pay $14.5 Million to Settle Suit – New York Times:

Hewlett-Packard said Thursday that it would pay $14.5 million to settle a lawsuit by the California attorney general over the company’s use of private detectives to obtain private phone records of board members and journalists.

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