I agree that criminal prosecution was way out of line (they do have a ton of other options in the legal system for disciplining lawyers, yes? For example, the appeals court could've fined the lawyers a ton of cash or something without necessarily making it an actual crime.)

OTOH, if one wanted to get all pedantic about it, wouldn't the discovery subpoena be something akin to social engineering? They used intimidation and half-truths (via an over-broad subpoena) to get what they shouldn't have. I still disagree with the verdict, but I can at least see the angle the judges were coming from, and any lawyer with even half a technical mind could make that angle stick quite easily, no?

/P

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