A few key points from HP's settlement with California:

• The bulk of the fine - $13.5 million - goes to an investigatory fund - the Privacy and Piracy Fund - that pays for investigations into consumer privacy violations and intellectual property crimes. That's at least in part in HP's interests, anyway.
  
  

• HP agrees to implement certain internal controls. InformationWeek reported:
  
  

  HP will expand its employee and vendor codes to include the company's legal and ethical standards that apply to investigations. The company will also create a Compliance Council within HP that will develop, revise, and oversee policies and procedures for ethics and compliance programs. Finally, HP's annual training requirement will include a more prominent ethics component as well as additional training for employees involved in investigations.
  

  
  
  

• The settlement doesn't affect the criminal prosecutions of Patricia Dunn, Kevin Hunsaker or the contractors, but, the Washington Post reports, California AG Bill Lockyer said he is sympathetic to Dunn's personal health problems. She is undergoing chemotherapy. But no settlement with Dunn is imminent, Lockyer said.