Dawn Kawamoto, and two other CNET reporters spied upon by Hewlett-Packard, are threatening to sue the Silicon Valley computer giant, according to the New York Times. HP deserves all the grief it gets. The company, despite allowing its investigators to obtain reporters' private phone records, escaped with nothing more than a $14.5m slap on the wrist from the government; and it had offered just $10,000 to each of the journalists whose phone traffic it secretly monitored. The only thing wrong with the planned lawsuit: it claims the CNET reporters, because of their traumatic experience, are no longer allowed to report on HP. Given that the computer company is as boring as it is huge, that's a blessing for any tech journalist.