HP Settlement Pays for IP Enforcement–What’s the Connection?
The California Attorney General just announced a $14.5 million settlement with Hewlett-Packard for its use of pretexting, a type of fraud, to spy on its board members and journalists who were reporting on internal strife at the company. Nothing so surprising thereâo[per thou]the investigation has been going on for a while, and there was no question as to wrongdoing on the part of HP leadership. What[base ‘]s interesting, though, is where that money is going. According to the settlement agreement and the AG[base ‘]s own press release, $13.5 million is going to create a new [base “]Privacy and Piracy Fund,[per thou] which will finance [base “]law enforcement activities related to privacy and intellectual property rights.[per thou]
Now, I[base ‘]d be the first to note that there are intrinsic links between privacy and copyright law and policy, but more often than not, this link comes about because overzealous, self-appointed copyright cops are all too willing to invade users[base ‘] privacy: installing spyware on computers; lobbying for personal information to be web-accessible before registering a domain; and defeating laws that would specifically target actions like HP[base ‘]s pretexting.
[Public Knowledge - Policy Blog]
