Michael Rigby-Jones wrote:

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p.s. The above disclaimer is worthless, and yet many IT Departments 
require them.  They've been shot down multiple times under U.S. law as 
an invalid contract... there's no "acceptance" or "negotiation" stages 
(similar to the reasons that many "shrink-wrap" licenses are also being 
thrown out in court cases), so they're non-binding and a total waste of 
bandwidth.  If your company lawyers require them, they're idiots and 
don't understand how to apply case law.

All they can really be used for is threats of legal action against 
someone if they inadvertently received your message, but the threat is a 
paper tiger and anyone who WANTS to read your e-mail illicitly -- 
already knows this.

These disclaimer messages say to your savvy customers who know what's 
going on with e-mail law, that your legal department wishes to withhold 
the right to hold an unloaded gun to their heads.  Which, of course is 
probably not a good way to treat customers if you care to keep them.

I say - there's a good idea.  If you're someone's customer and they send 
you one of these silly disclaimers, ask them to stop as they're 
threatening you.  Be irrational about it, since the message is already 
irrational/illogical anyway.  Tell them you won't do business with them 
any more if they continue to send them!  Ahhh... civil disobedience. 
Such fun.

--
Nate Duehr, nate@natetech.com
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