Lawyers seem to like them. The theory is that if a message says something
that the company would wish to disassociate itself from, the disclaimer[1]
gives some basis for this. I remain unconvinced that it would actually stand
up in court[4]. After all, we don't attach disclaimers when we talk on the
telephone, snail mail leaving the office (while all mail leaving the office
is supposed to be checked by a Partner, this is a procedure that can be
circumvented....) does not contain a load of legal tosh....
It all started with faxes. For some reason it was deemed necessary to put a
"if we sent you this by mistake you must forget you ever saw it and shoot
yourself immediately" tag on the bottom. When we started using email,
various PHBs thought we should do the same with email[5]. Then there was the
case where an employee of one <mumble> insurance company said something or
other in an email about another <mumble> insurance company, and the second
company sued for libel, and thanks to the UK's libel laws[6] panic set in...
So we have one. I don't think it serves any real purpose other than
satisfying the desires of PHBs to have a disclaimer because everyone else
has one. They're mostly harmless, so long as they don't get too long.
[1] Like mine[2]
[2] It wasn't my idea[3]
[3] I resisted for as long as possible
[4] Depending on local laws
[5] Why? If you send a letter to the wrong address you don't put a label in
saying "if we were so dumb as to post this to the wrong place, feed it to
the dog", do you?
[6] Better than the lottery...
Les Bessant mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
IT Manager, Sanderson Townend & Gilbert
Acting in a personal capacity
http://www.tiggercam.co.uk - New, improved and with more bounce!
-----Original Message-----
From: Banyas, Pat F. Civ [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
Sent: Wednesday, August 29, 2001 3:34 PM
To: NT System Admin Issues
Subject: OT E-Mail Disclaimers
I have been considering adding a disclaimer to all outgoing mail from my
mail server. Anyone who does not mind sharing of their disclaimer ideas
please feel free to forward them to me. Thanks in advance for the
assistance.
Pat Banyas MCSE
System/Network Administrator
U.S. Naval Hospital Guantanamo Bay
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
011-5399-72440
http://www.sunbelt-software.com/ntsysadmin_list_charter.htm
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