Author: W B Hacker Date: To: exim users Subject: Re: [exim] disclaimers :-(
Jeroen van Aart wrote: > Someone had the bright idea that those pesky disclaimers at the bottom
> of emails are a good thing. What is common practice and how'd I
> implement it in exim? I assume that this ought to be done for external
> recipients only and not for local email. I am sure this has been asked
> before, if so please point me to the right documentation.
>
> And if this is a bad idea (I think so) I'd like to know it and why. :-)
>
> Thank you,
> Jeroen
>
Aside from the irritation factor (at least with those that can be larger
than the message), if applied by other-than the original-author at time
of creation, they can break some, not all, of the many things that use
hashing or encryption or fingerprinting or ... anything that does not
expect extra bytes in message body between compositon and far-end receipt.
That said, diclaimers and such are not going to go away.
Email is increasingly viewed by courts and governments as just one more
form of 'written' communication, and subject to (alrgely) the same rules.
More than a few such jurisdictions require, for example, a
body-corporate to put their company registration number, registered
office address, yada, yada on any business correspondence.
Some jurisdictions require 'opt out' instructions, and not just for
mailing lists. Who decides at what point a Product Upgrade bulletin is
perceived as UCE?
But those are the easy ones - usually one to three lines.
'Disclaimers' may not be driven by anything as obvious or avoidable.
The legal eagles who advise a corporation to add the 'usual' type of
disclaimer are not necessarily doing that because they expect it to be
effective OR stand a legal challenge.
More often they are inspired by the 'prudent man' test.
If/as/when a Director or officer fails to exercise 'prudence' - i.e.
doing the best than can be done - to preserve, grow, and protect from
harm the body corporate and resources under his care, then he may be
seen to have failed in his fiduciary duties.
Serious stuff that....
So they do everything that *might* be some help, and mandate that their
subordinates do so as well.
One can argue the fine points 'til Hong Kong harbour freezes over - but
it is still there.
All part of life's rich code-bloat.. Even in retirement...
