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HP Pays $14.5M to Make Civil Charges Disappear
theodp writes "The California Attorney General's Office negotiated a $14.5 million payoff from HP as part of a settlement that calls for the state not to pursue civil charges related to the now infamous spy scandal against the company and its current or former officers or directors (felony criminal charges against five individuals still remain). HP also agreed to maintain the watchdog positions of chief ethics officer and chief privacy officer for five years."
Such are the consequences of giving human rights to corporations.
There are shills on slashdot. Apparently, I'm one of them.
Here in holland, where bikes are stolen as a kind of national sport it would be like: Steal 1 bicycle. get caught, go straight to jail. Steal a hundred bicycles, get caught, return 5 of them, say you are sorry, and that it was too easy and get a 'responsible citizens award' because you cooperated with the law.
I really think this is an injustice for the people who had their identities and privacy compromised, and for HP shareholders in the long run.
Well, the shareholders do not seem to mind. In fact, the market is relieved that their company got away so lightly.
I'm much more funny, interesting and insightful than the moderators think
I'm not really sure what the big deal here is. I'm all for routing out corruption and all that jazz, but this is an issue of civil law. They settled the case. This happens dozens, maybe hundreds of times per day in civil cases; 90% of civil cases never reach a verdict.
The fact that the article submitter chose to spin it as a "payoff" doesn't magically make it a bribe. Call me when they pay $14.5 million and get the criminal charges dropped and then I'll hoot and holler about corruption and greed in America with you. Until then, this is a total non-issue for me. The settlement may be a little bit on the low end, but then again I'm not too terribly disappointed that they didn't waste taxpayer money to pursue both a civil and criminal trial over basically the same charges/complaints.
No, they engaged in illegal behavior. Not everything that is unethical is illegal. See our current political system and the campaign finance system that supports it. Tell me what is ethical about the fact that elected Senators and Congressman don't even bother to read most of the bills they vote on. They don't even write the bills anymore, their staffers do. You know, the same staffers who will eventually leave to take high paying jobs with lobbying firms after paying their dues writing bills that are friendly to the interest those lobbyist represent. Completely unethical, 100% legal.
In fact, I wouldn't be at all surprised to see most of these five individuals get what amounts to a slap on the wrist after a large donation or two is made to the proper re-election campaign committees or PACs. Sure one of them will have the book thrown at them so it appears action is being taken. Probably the lowest person on the totem pole. Then, after the smoke clears from that conviction suddenly the state will find no compelling reason to drag these remaining cases out. The poor defendants will have been put through enough. A small fine and 6 months probation will suddenly be more than enough punishment. After all, their names will have already been drug through the mud. That punishment alone will have done more damage than anything they state could do. They will have learned their lessons. I can see it now. What a joke.
When did impersonating a law enforcement officer get redefined as "pretexting". The former is a criminal offense and the latter is revisionist bullshit. There should be criminal charges for every person involved in this idiotic farce.
Professional Politicians are not the solution, they ARE the problem.
Mark Hurd is the guy who turned HP around. After their many many under-performing choices for CEO pre Hurd they know how hard it is to get a competent guy in the top job. They're not going to be getting rid of Hurd anytime soon.
Mac OS X and Windows XP working side by side to fight back the night.