This thread has resulted in many interesting perspectives, and as stated by
many, IT DEPENDS on who you are, what you do, and how your communications
are controlled or regulated.  Public Agencies have far greater concerns and
a much more difficult path to protecting content if they seek to keep it
from public view, and likely the only ones who can give them a path forward
on this would be a City, County, or State Attorney.   I know there are laws
in every State that provide guidance for what is PRIVATE and not subject to
FOIA, Sunshine Laws, etc.

In general much of what I've read though sounds as if it's more a policy or
procedure issue than anything a disclaimer statement would cover.  There
should be clear guidance given to staff/employees on what constitutes a
record, whether it's generated in an email or elsewhere, and what the
obligations are for managing and producing records.

There are many things that should not be communicated via email that are-
and a lot of this comes from the reliance on the ease of the form of
communication, which is now being exacerbated by the use of IM, Text, Social
Networks, Twitter, and so on.  

Those of you who are 'a bit longer in the tooth' can recall the days prior
to email when communications were limited to verbal, phone, and written.
There was no need for a disclaimer on communications then, because
typically, no one committed anything to writing unless it was substantive
enough to generate a formal record.  And if it WAS a record, then obviously
it could be subject to discovery, or to FOIA or Sunshine Laws if from a
public entity.  And the only way someone was able to obtain it was to have a
physical copy, either through planned distribution or a bootleg copy.

With email, because there is little if any guidance given on its appropriate
use for business communications, and the simple addition of a cc or bcc
results in a litany of people having copies of the content which can be
forwarded on with another simple click, there are greater concerns.  And the
worst part is many times, copies are misdirected unintentionally because of
the auto fill feature in addressing. Let's say you type in "Cha" and you
have two Charlies, one Charles and a Charlene in your address book...  if
you hit enter and don't go back an proof the list, you may end up
accidentally sending something to the wrong party.... but I'm SURE NOBODY
HERE has ever done that! =)

Disclaimers seem to be an ineffective way of controlling the distribution
and use of content, and while they may stand up in court, I've yet to see
any "one size fits all" legal precedent that has made them bulletproof.

Larry
[log in to unmask]

List archives at http://lists.ufl.edu/archives/recmgmt-l.html
Contact [log in to unmask] for assistance
To unsubscribe from this list, click the below link. If not already present, place UNSUBSCRIBE RECMGMT-L or UNSUB RECMGMT-L in the body of the message.
mailto:[log in to unmask]