[ILUG] Got My First Linux Book

[Proinnsias Breathnach]

On Thu, Apr 22, 2004 at 09:49:23PM +0100, Paul Jakma wrote:
> The sig can not impose restrictions after the fact. Had the poster 
> had some kind of reasonable expectation that his post would not be 
> distributed far and wide and archived, eg through prior agreement, 
> authorisation for further dsitribution would then be needed. However, 
> clearly the poster does not have this expectation.
> 
Actually, most of the authors are blisfully unaware of the sigs their
companies append to their emails until a conversation such as this
arises (as often the outbound email gateway appends the sig, not the
MUA). 

The main reason for the sigs are not to get groups like ILUG in trouble,
rather they are there to allow companies some strategy of legal
avoidance. Should an email (from a company account) become known in
public, and have (how shall we say) distasteful content, the company can
go after whomever released the email, and / or have it excluded as
evidence in any court cases that may surround the matter. 

How effective they are, and/or how legal is debatable. Many people with
decades of legal experience seem to think they're appropriate, given
that email has been accepted in courts the world over as a legally
binding written communication. They're considered to be about the same
as writing on company headed paper, aka an official company communication.

As many have pointed out - this is a public mailing list ... maybe, just
maybe it's worth having some form of ILUG disclaimer on them ...
something along the lines of :

===
All emails to the ILUG mailing lists are considered to be personal
opinion, not official policy (unless otherwise stated) of any company
related to the poster.
==

but yet again ... that's more guff being appended to peoples emails ..

P
(not entirely sure if this is an argument that can be won either way)