[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
> On Mon, 10 Nov 2008, Kate Harris wrote:
>
>   
>> 2008/11/10 John Jasen <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>:
>>     
>>> Kate Harris wrote:
>>>       
>>>>> You then use the corporate legal policy to create an IT policy that
>>>>> 'conforms', i.e., personal data will not be tolerated (or backed up and
>>>>> restored) on company laptops.
>>>>>           
>>>> I'm not sure I want to go so hard on personal data, but... if the
>>>> policy exists it doesn't have to be fully enforced all of the time,
>>>> just if needed.
>>>>         
>>> It has to be enforced consistently, or else it can be held to be
>>> unenforceable. You can't fire user X over doing un-allowed-activity-A,
>>> where users Y and Z do it and get away with it.
>>>       
>> Oh indeed.  Once the seal is broken on severe punishments for
>> transgressions consistency must be applied.  But there are degrees of
>> transgression in this case - a letter to a solicitor accidentally
>> saved to a laptop and forgotten about vs. GBs of copyright material
>> which was not legally purchased.
>>     
>
> you are assuming that the 40GB of copyrighted material was not legally 
> obtained.
>   

Depending what mood the RIAA or other organization are in when they
decide to visit your office, it may not matter whether or not the
material was legally maintained.  If it is on a company asset then the
company has to be the one who legally obtained it, not the user (your
mileage may vary depending on who has the bigger lawyers).  This is
(may) be true of software, mp3s, or other copyrighted materials.

A friend of mine who installed his personal copy of Visio on his laptop
at "insert big company here".  When the corporate inventory software saw
it, it billed his department for the software.  This is for the same
reason -- it's on a corporate asset so their legal department has made
the decision that they have to be the owners of the license for the
software.


-- 
Dan Rich <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> |   http://www.employees.org/~drich/
                               |  "Step up to red alert!"  "Are you sure, sir?
                               |   It means changing the bulb in the sign..."
                               |          - Red Dwarf (BBC)

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