Twice as off-topic as your regular OT posting.

I am quite mystified by the proliferation of legalese mumbo-jumbo at the
bottom of email. I've seen this on internal email, external email sent only
to me or to a group, and of course in email on this list. They do not seem
to be as boilerplate as the text of email hoaxes (warning: generic
over-the-counter medicine makes children vomit blood), nor even consistent
within organizations. I have yet to be (mis)directed to use any such
nonsense. And I regard it as that; I am at a loss to grasp the
misunderstanding that would instruct me that "If you received this in error,
please ... delete the material from any computer.", which would have to
include our email server, and any store and forward systems between the
sender and here. I cannot imagine that such gibberish could hold up in a
court of law. Has this become a mildly viral urban legend, infecting the
email of those clever enough to figure out how their email client enables
sigs, without bothering to have figured out what they should contain? Could
someone get in trouble for adding such a disclaimer, without approval of
their legal department, or even lose an ensuing lawsuit for making such
(dis)claims?

google on email disclaimer gave a page from The Register
<http://212.100.234.54/content/35/19057.html>, and the eponymous
<http://www.emaildisclaimers.com>, whose site admits "it is not certain
whether an email disclaimer will protect you from liability in a court of
law".

I am reminded of the discussion on this list years ago about computers that
greeted those who connected, before they signed on, with "keep out"
warnings. The rumor was that some cracker had claimed that, since the
computer they had cracked had greeted them with a "Welcome" message once
they had found a sign-on, they proceeded under the assumption that they were
in fact welcome.

Maybe I'm just irritated that our corporate legal department insists that we
use our "legal" names. Never before have I been called Gregory. But I feel
sorrier for John, who goes by Jack, and for Elizabeth, who goes by Betsy.
Having a daughter who goes by her middle name, I wonder what kind of
annoyances she will face in adult life.

Reading this email may or may not "cause gas with oily discharge".

Greg Stigers
http://www.cgiusa.com
"That in some fields of his country there are certain shining stones of
several colors, whereof the Yahoos are violently fond..." Gulliver's
Travels, Chapter 7, http://www.litrix.com/gulliver/gulli035.htm

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