My new mailing list policy
I think I’m going to adopt a policy of not replying to posts to mailing lists that end with blurbs such as the following.
The information contained in this mail is solely property of the sender’s organization. This mail communication is confidential. Recipients named above are obligated to maintain secrecy and are not permitted to disclose the contents of this communication to others. This email and any files transmitted with it are confidential and intended solely for the use of the individual or entity to whom they are addressed. If you have received this email in error please notify the originator of the message. Any views expressed in this message are those of the individual sender.
I can make the excuse that my lawyers won’t let me because they are trying to understand the legal ramifications of responding to a message on a public mailing list with a disclaimer like that. Nothing shorts out a lawyer’s circuits like trying to understand the risks of engaging with another person’s risky behavior after accepting a disclaimer about said behavior.
I wish someone could at least invent a shorter disclaimer. Seriously — wouldn’t a few words do just as well? How about this:
This email is confidential and proprietary. Do not disclose to third parties.
Or even better, how about this:
I’m a moron. Thank you for ignoring me.
Lawyers get paid by the hour, and they charge for things like reading. Coincidently, have you ever seen a disclaimer from a law firm? They’re pretty freaking long. I’d post an example, but I’m pretty sure they’d have grounds for suing me.
William
6 May 10 at 10:49 am
I agree about the size/general pointlessness of the disclaimers, but I believe that a lot of people aren’t including disclaimers because they *want* to, they are including them because it is either:
a) company policy that they append it like a .sig
or
b) the corp mail servers automatically append it
If someone asks a good question, don’t punish them because their legal department made some lame email policy.
Bill Hathaway
6 May 10 at 11:23 am
You’re right punishing them wouldn’t be right. Answer the question, if it interests you, but attach a DCMA take down notice as your sig.
William
6 May 10 at 3:37 pm