Legal Obligation

These are indeed some crazy times, and litigation has slithered its way into the spam filtering issue. Without legal expertise I can only speculate on corporate obligation to protect employees from offensive emails. Apparently we live in an age where people have the right to not be offended - I'm not sure how that works, but it appears to be quite true.

Corporations need to take reasonable steps to protect employees from offensive materials including spam. Fare enough, depending on how 'reasonable steps' might be defined. Indeed there are some rather vile spams floating around these days, and it is appropriate for a corporation to take reasonable steps. But since there is no filtering method that is 100 percent effective (exceptions noted), corporate obligation must be measured - limited to what is reasonable, and participants must heed their age and behave like adults.

At the same time, and as unreasonable as it may seem, users have some responsibility too, as implied already. Logic dictates that if you open a nudie magazine, you're liable to see some pictures. Knowing full well what the contents of such magazines are, Mrs Crabratch opens the magazine anyway, and proceeds to be offended - go figure.

Spams are no different. The contents of an email that claim to enlarge one of your members in the subject leaves little doubt as to its contents - at least after the first couple occurrences. And opening an email like that should be considered 'at your own risk' rather than employer neglect. In short, those who are overly broad in their definition of offensive material, should avoid reading offensive material. Ah, if only I were king of the world...

Deployment of a spam filter should be sufficient to satisfy 'reasonable steps'. Consultation with the corporate attorneys should clear up the matter, but again - an attorneys opinion is only that - opinion. Litigation is the only true test, and that's a test you would prefer to avoid. With the problem of spam being as large as it is, and with so many people looking for a free ride - the definition of 'reasonable steps' is crucial for the future of email as a corporate means of communications.