Full Disclosure mailing list archives
Re: Email Disclaimers...Legally Liable if breached?
From: Ray P <sixsigma98 () hotmail com>
Date: Thu, 11 Oct 2007 02:13:44 +0000
US-centric response: If there is no law, there can be no liability unless a contract exists. For a contract to exist, consideration (usually money) has been exchanged. If you simply receive an email by mistake, no consideration has been exchanged. Consider this angle: If a company adds such a disclaimer, is it a tacit acknowledgment that they have a duty to protect the contents of the email? If so, is it negligence if they fail to do so by sending it to the wrong person? Would the _intended_ recipient have a case against the sender for contractual failure to protect confidential information (or whatever) if the _un_intended recipient posts it somewhere or otherwise discloses its contents? If a company sends me something in the mail that I did not order, it's mine and I do not have to pay for it. If a company sends me an unsolicited email, does it become mine? Remember, it wasn't like a package delivered to the wrong address. The email was delivered to my address with my name on it. Ray
Date: Wed, 10 Oct 2007 19:50:51 -0400 From: gr () eclipsed net To: full-disclosure () lists grok org uk Subject: Re: [Full-disclosure] Email Disclaimers...Legally Liable if breached? At 2007-10-11 08:52 +1000, Kelly Robinson <caliana1989 () gmail com> wrote:It is common these days for email messages to contain a disclosure notice, which may include statements such as:You forgot the most absurd: "the content of this message [sent often, on purpose, to publicly visible and archived mailing lists] is intended 'only for the adressee'".Do these notices carry any *legal* force? Why or Why not?I am not a lawyer, but my understanding is the same as Geoff's (gjgowey () tmo blackberry net): because the warning, such as it is, appears after the recipient has already read the content with no way (and not even tacking it on the top would really be enough, I don't think) for the recipient to opt-out and simply not read that content. They should be contrasted with warnings of potential legal culpability if a connecting user continues to use a system in /etc/issue or similar: those are a Good Idea, and help one's case against attackers, because they go a long way to nullify "I didn't know it wasn't okay" sorts of defenses. -- gabriel rosenkoetter gr () eclipsed net
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Current thread:
- Email Disclaimers...Legally Liable if breached? Kelly Robinson (Oct 10)
- Re: Email Disclaimers...Legally Liable if breached? gjgowey (Oct 10)
- Re: Email Disclaimers...Legally Liable if breached? Nick FitzGerald (Oct 10)
- Re: Email Disclaimers...Legally Liable ifbreached? gjgowey (Oct 10)
- Re: Email Disclaimers...Legally Liable ifbreached? Kelly Robinson (Oct 10)
- Re: Email Disclaimers...Legally Liable ifbreached? Valdis . Kletnieks (Oct 11)
- Re: Email Disclaimers...Legally Liable if breached? Nick FitzGerald (Oct 10)
- Re: Email Disclaimers...Legally Liable if breached? gjgowey (Oct 10)
- Re: Email Disclaimers...Legally Liable if breached? Ray P (Oct 10)
- Re: Email Disclaimers...Legally Liable if breached? Troy (Oct 10)
- Re: Email Disclaimers...Legally Liable if breached? Valdis . Kletnieks (Oct 11)
- Re: Email Disclaimers...Legally Liable if breached? Troy (Oct 11)
- Re: Email Disclaimers...Legally Liable if breached? Ray P (Oct 11)
- Re: Email Disclaimers...Legally Liable if breached? Troy (Oct 11)
- Re: Email Disclaimers...Legally Liable if breached? Ray P (Oct 13)