Hector26gn said:
I want to add a disclaimer to the bottom of all my outgoing emails, after my
signature. How do i do that please?
What would be the point? The recipient doesn't see the disclaimer until
AFTER they open your e-mail to read it. Even more stupid are
disclaimers that are placed at the bottom of the message rather than at
the top. Oh yeah, everything your just read is now going to be subject
to a disclaimer that you see later? Anything you attempt to disclaim,
say, regarding virally infected e-mails from you is worthless as you are
still responsible for spreading the virus. You might get away from
responsibility if your employee forwarded a non-company e-mail but NOT
if your employee sourced that e-mail. Disclaimers are unenforcable. No
matter what you disclaim, it is still YOUR e-mail whose content YOU put
there. You could ask your lawyer regarding the legal force behind a
disclaimer but also remember that legality is something a court decides,
so you decide if you can actually survive the case in court.
There is legal force to a disclaimer. E-mails sent by the employees of
a company are seen in court as messages sent with the company
letterhead. The inferred copyright for the document is no greater and
no less whether the disclaimer exists or not. If trying to claim that
anything within the e-mail is your property then, as the following
article mentions, "what is it doing in my in-box without an invitation?"
My e-mail account, its service, my e-mail client, my host, and my drive
space are NOT your property so if you don't want me to usurp your
property then don't dump it in mine. Just because you publish a book
that is your copyrighted property doesn't mean that I want you dumping a
copy of it in my house if I can't use it.
http://slate.msn.com/id/2101561/
The disclaimer makes the sender look like an idiot. Is that how you
want to be viewed?
http://articles.techrepublic.com.com/5100-10878_11-1039350.html
If I'm the wrong recipient of your e-mail with disclaimer, I was never a
party to any agreement with you regarding any communications you have
with me. If you drop a bag of money in my mailbox by mistake, yeah,
guess what, it's mine. I'm not legally responsible for your mistakes.
Since I'm not a consenting party to your secret content e-mails, you
can't make me responsible for not disclosing their content. I never
agreed to anything from you and a disclaimer cannot be enforced because
it doesn't exist to the recipient until after the e-mail is opened. If
disclosure is your bugga-boo then go back to postal mail where you can
insert a document inside a protected package. That structure doesn't
exist in e-mail.
Explain how you return as unread a misdirected e-mail with privileged
content when the disclaimer cannot be seen until the e-mail opened,
especially if the disclaimer is at the end. Are you going to send the
recipient, even the mis-directed one, a time machine for free that can
undo their opening of your e-mail? Gee, how much does one cost without
your e-mail as that could come in quite handy in my car in case of
accidents.
You think sending someone a bomb in which inside was a note about not
opening the package is going to absolve you of your responsibility for
killing the recipient or, if you missed, of blowing up their house?
You might want to read
http://www.emaildisclaimers.com/ but be aware
that your recipients will still see you as an idiot for including
content that cannot be agreed upon until after the package has been
opened.
I've had some fun with boobs that use disclaimers. I reply saying that
I do not agree to the conditions of the disclaimer and what I should do
about it. Deleting the e-mail isn't sufficient because the content of
their e-mail was read so it is in my head. Since I didn't invite them
to present private or secret information to me, I ask what they consider
a reasonable charge for cost of bandwidth and disk space usage on my
computer.
Think about this for just a second: If you were to proliferate kiddie
porn via e-mail, do you think the FBI or your state gov't would give a
gnat's fart about the presence of a disclaimer in your e-mails? Just
click 3 times the heels of your red shoes and perhaps you'll come back
to reality, too.
