sting operaton

[Paul Mackin]

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From: 	Ted Samsel[SMTP:tejas at infi.net]

I saw the headlines of today's WashPost... something about foax
being sued for e-mail harrassment.
Don't know if I'll get around to getting today's issue, but
it might be worth looking at.

>>>>Just read the article--a very short one--and the subtext I took away was WHAT A STRANGE MEDIUM EMAIL IS.

Today's story (different from yesterday's Little Women story) concerns racist and sexist jokes related in private messages that later become the basis for discrimination and harassment suits. This is possible because "private" messages are not really private. There is virtually always a backup that can be used as evidence, by the plaintiffs (often hundreds when it's a class action suit), and the defendant usually a large corporation. (Incidently, as most people know, these backups have a perfectly innocent (nonlitigious and non-nosey-nellie) use. When the computer crashes you want to be able to do a full restoration so that some poor schlep's last two weeks of work doesn't go down the Crane fixture.)

Personally I'm not the least worried about legal sanctions, but eeeekkk, when I dwell on the fact that all the dumb things I've put in email over the last few years ARE ON FILE SOMEWHERE, it's enough make one start keeping carrier pigeons on the roof.

				P.