This is corporate policy to protect the corporation. It is power gone too far. People need to know that it's ok to speak up when something wrong occurs.

For example, If I were to see Jimmy stealing some GoogleBot servers then absolutely the company would want me to inform them about Jimmy's actions. Communication is largely done by email. So, there is no problem reporting illegal activity by email.

But, that's not what the corporation is fearful of, they are afraid of Jimmy's department which is infringing Big Corp.'s Patents. If I see this and email the company then the company has to respond with an inquiry to their lawyer and investigate, otherwise this could come out later in a court trial and cause financial harm. So the company doesn't want people to do what they believe is right. Oh sure, we can still report it verbally. But, that's absurd to have a policy that says email is fine for all communications except for anything that could potentially be detrimental to the company. What if I was harassed at work, I'm not supposed to say anything about that in email, it all has to be done face to face?

I hope this case wins, I hope that folks here understand that it's important to do what's right and not to do what their corporation tells them is right.

As I said above, most corporations advise employees to raise legal concerns to lawyers. This makes those concerns privileged and ensures the concerns go to people who can, you know, professionally evaluate them.

So I don't think you can reasonably say this is a case of companies not wanting illegality to be disclosed. It's wanting disclosure to take the proper form.

(Indeed, they have a vested interest in proper handling of illegality to ensure that higher-ups are aware of and can mitigate legal risks.)

Well, then maybe not the speech between employees is the problem but jury trials or the discovery therein.

If lawyers are just fishing to soundbites and that leads to companies hassling their employees that's a flawed system.