HP agrees to $14.5m settlement
Hewlett-Packard said it would pay $14.5m to settle a lawsuit by the California Attorney-General over the companys use of private detectives to obtain private phone records of board members and journalists.
The New York Times notes that the company is paying $650 000 in fines for \'statutory damages,\' but the bulk of the money, $13.5m, is going to create a state-administered Privacy and Piracy Fund. The fund is to finance the investigation of consumer privacy violations and of intellectual-property theft, including the copying of movies and music. The remainder of the settlement, $350 000, will cover the states expenses in its investigation of the case, which stemmed from the companys effort to trace news leaks from its board. The settlement also includes an agreement by the AG not to pursue further civil claims against the company, its current and former directors, its officers or its employees. Full report in The New York Times