Are email disclaimers legally enforceable?

Another post inspired by a mailing list post.

Today, a young lady posted, without context of any kind, an email to a semi-public email listserv, asserting:

Disclaimer:  All communication sent from charityXXXXX@XXXXX.COM, or from Charity XXXXX
is privileged communication, owned exclusively by Charity XXXXX, as proprietary owner/ideas and information as copyright. No duplication, dissemination or profit from the above-mentioned material may occur without the express discretionary consent of owner, Charity XXXXX.
Copyright Charity XXXXX 1958-2012
All rights reserved

You see a lot of these kinds of things these days.  Problem is, they’re completely pointless.  As was pointed out by the Economist back in April of last year.  And by Slate, in 2004.  In fact, the only thing I can find which indicates these sort of stupid things have any merit is this guy, and then only in very limited circumstances.

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I’m graduated.

So the Medill project came to a successful conclusion. I’m now a Master of Science in Journalism. I’m still looking for some full time work, but I’ve managed to get a couple of freelance projects that will keep me fed and housed for a couple of months.  I’ll post more about them as they get … Read more

State of the American Obituary report

As many of you are probably aware, I’ve spent the last couple of months working on the Interactive Innovation Project for Fall 2009.  This is the capstone project of my year at Medill. The project has been about obituaries in print and online, and about how obituaries drive readership to local media outlets. One of … Read more

It’s now Autumn, and quarter 4 of grad school

So today was my first day of my last quarter of studies at Northwestern. It seems that I’m going to be thinking intimately about obituaries for the next ten to twelve weeks. It also is creeping up on time for me to start looking for work.  Can’t support this lifestyle with no income, so it’s … Read more

Understanding complex adaptive systems

So this is an interesting thing. I had two classes this quarter at Northwestern University, and they both had similar, but seperate objectives. First, it was a project to highlight my interactive graphic design skills. Secondly, it was a project to highlight my interactive storytelling skills. Ok, so with the approval of the instructors for … Read more

Douglas Rushkoff on the publishing business: ‘There’s much to look forward to.’

Media theorist and author of many influential books on advertising, corporate influence on culture, and too many more to name, weighs in on the future of the publishing business on Publishers’s Weekly.  Conclusion: The publishing business’s woes are short-term; good things are coming: Behind the bad news, there is much to look forward to. Our … Read more

Nano-writing technique leaves a very small impression

In April, scientists from Northwestern University published a new technique for drawing nano-scale structures on a surface, using an atomic force microscope.  In this video, the authors of the paper demonstrate and explain the technique and some of it’s potential applications. [podcast format=”video”]http://www.ianmonroe.com/flash_video/NANOFAB.flv[/podcast] Note: This story was first published on the Medill Reports website, on 5/14/2009. … Read more