I'm a bit taken aback by your statement that most email is valueless.  Not 
that you're wrong - you're not - but that truth is not restricted to just email.  
Most paper is valueless - the vast majority is a copy of existing electronic 
data.  Same with electronic information in general, whether including email or 
not:  most of the full collection of electronic information at most organizations 
has never been touched in years and has little to no value.

The problem is in the word "most."  That means that some email is valuable, 
and in some cases extremely valuable.  Applying an arbitrary 4-year retention 
across all email is as sensible as applying the same thing across all electronic 
information, and across all paper too.  There absolutely will be content in 
some email messages that had better be retained for more than 4 years, 
unless you've done a deep cost-risk evaluation and you're willing to endure 
some sizable risks for simplicity.  Alternatively, a more robust program to apply 
the organization's retention schedule to email content is a better route.

Wayne Hoff, CRM
Calgary, AB

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