Re: sendmail

From:
Date: 10/21/02 

Date: 21 Oct 2002 12:35:24 -0800

Joe <joe@jretrading.com> wrote:
>In article <87wuoclt1v.fld@barrow.com>, Floyd Davidson
><floyd@ptialaska.net> writes
>>
>>So you don't think a company should be responsible for its actions,
>>which I would say *does* fit the description "bizzare".
>>
>No, that isn't what I said. A company (its directors, at any rate) is
>certainly responsible for those actions of its employees which it
>directs, and which are carried out in the course of employment. It is,
>in my opinion, not responsible for the actions of its employees in their
>capacity as private citizens. YMMV.

So everything and anything they do using company email is within the
area where the company is responsible, and external to the area where
the company is not. I agree!

End of story...

>If you send a rude email to a friend via your employer's email system,
>(and you work in a business other than one based on sending rude emails)
>is your employer responsible for your act? Yes, under current law.

Yes, and quite correctly so according to the criteria you
outlined above.

>Should this be the case? Whether it should or not, if that email is seen
>by anyone other than your friend, they have just won the lottery. And
>best of all, it isn't you who has to pay the compensation for the
>shock/envy/whatever inflicted.
>
>Yes, I call that bizarre. You may feel it is right and proper, but you
>cannot simultaneously assert employees' rights to a free private email
>service provided by their employer.

There are ways to provide a "free private email service" to
employees, but it most certainly is not commonly done (I've
never seen it done), cannot include the same email service used
by the same employees to conduct business, and cannot be
distinguished only by what is right (is company business) or
wrong (is private business).

>As far as I can see, the only preventative action that a business using
>email can take is to inform its employees in writing of an email policy
>which lists prohibited subjects and states that archives of all messages
>will be kept.

That would certainly be the best business practice. But in fact
there is no legal requirement that businesses engage in that as
a good practice.

>And it must actually keep those archives. Even then, it may still be
>held negligent if it cannot demonstrate any means for actually enforcing
>its policy, such as the monitoring of mail for offensive messages with
>grep-type software running automatically.

That isn't quite true. The business must respond in appropriate
ways to any hint of inappropriate activity. If a company
clearly is ignoring the possibilities and does not respond to
complaints, they are indeed liable. 

-- 
Floyd L. Davidson         <http://www.ptialaska.net/~floyd>
Ukpeagvik (Barrow, Alaska)                 floyd@barrow.com

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