[horde] Couple of Items - Signature When Replying, Not Authorized To Use IMP

[Simon B]

On 29 Oct 2013 22:03, "Michael M Slusarz" <slusarz at horde.org> wrote:
>
> Quoting "Jens-U. Mozdzen" <jmozdzen at nde.ag>:
>
>> And actually those company policies needn't be "misguided" - there are
countries (Germany being one) where certain signature information is
actually required by law. Not under every circumstances, but instead of
risking expensive law suites, it is easier to tell the general company user
to add a company-designed signature to every business email.
>
>
> The whole "this is required by law" argument makes me laugh.  At least in
the current American law landscape.
>
> In (one of) my other lives, I am an attorney.  I used to work on large
civil cases in Federal Court - these are the cases between Fortune 500
companies with large delegations of expensive private attorneys.
>
> There was not a single case I ever dealt with where the "disclaimer"
language in an e-mail meant anything.  It is absolutely pointless.  If an
e-mail is sent, and there is a copy somewhere, it is most likely
discoverable.  (In the rare case it it isn't, it has *nothing* to do with
the disclaimer.)  These kind of disclaimers are analogous to shrink-wrap
contracts and/or contracts of adhesion - with the caveat that e-mail
disclaimers are even less enforceable since there generally is not any
consideration involved.
>
> So with my e-mail client developer hat on, I can do things like design
the client so that you can't do these kinds of inane, pointless actions -
at least by default.  Its my small effort to help clean up e-mail and make
it more useable.

IANAL (always wanted to use that acronym) and even I know they have little
or no real legal value.  However, that doesn't stop jobsworth lawyers all
over the world insisting that staff members add stupid signatures and
disclaimers.

But I do know Germany has some fairly strong laws surrounding the addition
of Vorsichtsrat and legal district, but my German isn't good enough to find
the regulation..

Simon