Ah, these corporate lords and their feudal intellectual property rights...I couldn't help but laugh when I saw this article on SLATE questioning the value of Time, Inc's email disclaimer. The disclaimer performs the usual effort to chill-effect and terrorize recipients, who might make the fatal mistake of forwarding or using the email in a manner that doesn't profit the feudal lord. What's even more delicious about this article is that it comes from SLATE, affiliated with that corporation that is oh-so concerned about information freedom: Microsoft! The fun starts when the author, Jack Shafer, receives an email from a Time, inc. journalist with a rather threatening disclaimer at the bottom--which warns him, in no uncertain terms, that he will instantly self-destruct if he forwards the email...

Ignoring the e-mail's threats, I forwarded it to my 175-pound Samoan attorney for his opinion, and he convinced me that Time Inc. has much more to fear from me than I have to fear from Time Inc. In fine Socratic fashion, my counsel walked me through the disclaimer, sentence by sentence, encouraging me to add my own thinking to our exercise. Here are my notes.

What fun! You have to read this article to believe it. I especially like:

The first sentence of the Time Inc. disclaimer also got me to thinking: If the message is Time Inc.'s corporate "property," what is it doing in my in-box without an invitation? Trespassing?

This is really too good. I like this Shafer guy. I hope he's able to keep his job after posting this artice.