David Boles:
I was having such a good day today. Then Apple threatened me in a nasty email.
The question is, are those footers we see in some emails – the ones like “This transmission may be privileged and may contain confidential information intended only for the person(s) named above” – legally binding and/or actionable? Many of us have always assumed they are put there just to satisfy some corporate weenie and can be safely ignored.
They’re there to scare people without lawyers.
At least here in Germany, these pesky email disclaimers are definitely not enforceable and void.
Because they would establish a contract between the email’s sender and the recipient – whereas a contract can only be established if _both_ parties agree on its terms. Which the email’s recipient clearly doesn’t do just by receiving it.
From what I have heard, I agree with the posts above, the notices are all bark and no bite.
Note: I am not a lawyer, though I would love to be earning what some of them take in.
IANAL, but my understanding is that the sender of an email retains copyright, so republishing may only with either the sender’s permission, or under fair-use terms.
Violation would be copyright infringement, and is not “illegal”
A question that still hasn’t been answered if if the email is legit. We only have David’s word he got it at all. Sorry to sound cynical but faking this kind of thing and appropriate outrage would be a great PR stunt for his site (he at least got links off of The Loop and TechCrunch with it) AND pay back Apple for the issue with his Apple Care not showing up the right way from the start.