E- Mail Disclaimers and Privacy

I've wondered for some time about the ethics of e- mail and related privacy issues. I got to thinking about it again when the so- called disclaimer in the Arkley apology e-mail was brought to light.

I'm just guessing, but I would assume that disclaimer is the signature on the bottom of most, if not every, e- mail sent out by Security National, Rob Arkley's e- mails having been fed to the press by various recipients before, but does that disclaimer really have any weight?

The first paragraph seems to be an attempt to guard against someone releasing said e- mail to anyone not intended as the recipient. I suppose that might have some weight if someone who the e-mail wasn't intended for came across it and pretty much stole the e-mail.

Let's say someone was playing around with someone's computer, found some strange e-mail, and sent it to the press. I'd say that would certainly be grounds for civil action, if not criminal action, disclaimer included on the e-mail or not.

But what if someone sends an e-mail that is unsolicited? Let's assume Larry Glass wasn't on the Eureka City Council (e-mails going to city hall becoming public property)? If he was just owner of The Works and had the same beef with Arkley, and Arkley sent him an apology via e-mail, would Glass be obliged to keep the contents of the e- mail from the press as per the disclaimer?

I should think not, as Glass did not ask for the e-mail to be sent to him. It seems out of bounds to me that anybody should send someone an e-mail and insist the contents remain private.

Sure, it might be rude to publicly release e-mails but, absent an existing agreement between the parties involved, I don't see how anyone can insist that someone not divulge the contents of an e-mail they sent unrequested.

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As I've said, I think it's often rude to release private e-mails between two people. I've thought it was rude that some of the e-mails we've seen disclosed in the local papers over the last few years were released. Sometimes I don't have a problem with it.

I figure e-mails from mailing lists that are open to the general public are fair game for release. I've passed a few of those around in my time. If someone is sending out mass e-mailings to pretty much anyone, I figure that makes it safe to assume it's ok to pass them out to others.

Didn't Salzman, or someone, start issuing some disclaimer to their e-mail lists a while back to try and keep list e-mail from being released?

Unsoliticited e-mails, regardless of the contents are still a gray area with me. If someone personally sends me something that might not be the kind of thing that the person would want made public, I figure it's only fair to keep it to myself, although by sending an e-mail everyone needs to realize there's the possibility not all recipients might feel the same way I do.

Sometimes I think it's more than fair to release certain e-mails. Back on September 4, 2005 I made a post here about some somewhat threatening e-mails I received as a result of some posts I made on the Redwood Peace and Justice Center e-mail lists.

That was mostly in regards our very own (I think), Al Baston. He didn't like a libertarian reaching out to his lefty friends on common interests via that e-mail list so kinda threatened me to stop using the list.

I've kept sometimes hostile e-mail sent by others to myself before, but I felt his were over the top, especially for someone on the Redwood PEACE and Justice Center e-mail list.

So, not only did I blog about e-mail terrorists, I sent an e-mail over the RPJC discuss e-mail list with Al Baston's e-mails accompanying it and suggested if others had a problem with me posting to that list, they should take it up with the RPJC leadership and perhaps have me removed from the list. I'm still on that list.

Certainly Al Baston's letters to me were fair game for public exposure. Just where to draw the line, I don't know. But I think these disclaimers like Rob Arkley had in his apology letter are likely of dubious legal value.

Anybody out there think all e-mail should be public property, or all e-mail should remain private?

E-Mail Terrorists?

I suppose terrorist is too strong a word for it but, you know, the people you hear about every now and then sending annoying, if not threatening e-mails to people often under the cover of anonymity? As Ken pointed out in his comment to my post on the Salzman debacle, Salzman's actions probably pale in comparison to those Humboldt Advocate newspaper editor Shawn Warford has been accused of doing. That being sending annoying and then threatening e-mails to some other newspaper folks.

I wonder how much of that goes on unreported and what do you make of people that do weird stuff like that? I know I've had a few e-mails like that over the years. Just yesterday, in fact, I got my second e-mail visit from one Al Baston as a result of something I posted on the Redwood Peace and Justice Center e-mail list. I'd sent a notice out for help in getting a civil liberties bill passed in the state legislature, something I would assume the Left would have an interest in, especially since the Green Party is working with the Libertarians in support of the bill.

So, this Baston guy e-mails me just like he did last time I posted some info on some marijuana legislation to the same list. This e-mail is almost to the word of his first one. Here's his mail, copied and pasted:

Dude,
I'm a liberal, a progressive, not a regressive Libertarian, hiding behind republican ideology and philosophy.
I give my money, my time and my heart to LIBERAL causes.

Now FRED...I asked you once before, politely, not to send me any more of your near-fascist emails...If I receive anymore, I'm going to literally come over there, wait for you and rip out your fucking lungs!!!

Do you get the picture yet?

Nice touchy feely liberal, huh? So, I e-mail him back once again telling him I sent that e-mail thru the RPJC e-mail list and, if he doesn't like it, he should unsubscribe from that list or get the owners of the list to boot me. Then, since we'd been through this before, I sent a similar e-mail out on the RPJC list, along with a copy of his e-mail, telling everyone else that if they were also offended by my e-mail they should also unsubscribe or have me booted from the list. I did that mostly to embarrass Baston but I've occasionally received an e-mail or two from people on the RPJC list nicely asking me to take them off my list and I have to e-mail and tell them they're not on my list.

Anyway, not long after posting my second note to the RPJC list, idiot Baston sends me the following:

Your a fucking huckster, a greedy right-wing piece of shit, an idiot, no different than any other lying religious asshole, barking and hustling your lies for money! Go sell your snake oil ideology to the Limbaugh gullible you prey on.

Now shut the fuck up you little cunt!!! Because I am coming over there to give you the bitch-slapping you want and deserve!!!

What a guy, huh? I waited and waited and he never showed up. Bummer. Just goes to show that all sides of the political spectrum have their nut cases. Anyone out there know this guy? Phone book shows him with a Eureka phone number.