At 07:59 AM 11/20/98 -0800, Mark Watkins wrote:
>Has anyone come across a web site with either examples of policies, or
sites that contain
>court/legal information pertaining to email?  Just wondering.....
>

You might try CourtTV's website http://www.courttv.com .  I know they used
to have something on internet/e-mail usage policy.

FWIW, here's my .02 worth.

There should only be one policy covering ALL company authorized/sponsored
communications.  This includes phone, e-mail, internet/intranet, fax,
videoconferencing, general computer use, etc.  The statement should be
limited to one page in length and should state that any of the above is
subject to monitoring for appropiate usage at any time.  It also must cover
personal use.  Our policy states that occasional personal use is ok as long
as it is not for personal gain (ie. no side businesses), is not considered
spam (multiple postings, mlm, etc.), is not pornographic, etc.
Additionally, the users are informed that all personal use is subject to
the same monitoring that corporate use is.

It is a good idea to have all new employees sign a copy of the
communications usage policy when they are hired.  The policy should be
reissued annually (similar to what most companies do with their sexual
harassment policy) and if any changes have been made all employees should
return a signed copy.

I know it seems like a lot of work but we live in a litigious society (and
no, I'm not attempting to restart the US vs the rest of the worlds court
systems thread :-) ).


Bryan Greenberg
Interstate Brands Corporation
Kansas City, MO