Re: Query, GEN: Privacy & Email

[Barbara Braxton <barbara@AUSTARMETRO.COM.AU>]

Dear Dawn
I am NOT a cat person so I just skimmed your email and deleted it, as no
doubt others did too, but I am amused that the ensuing discussion of your
right to post it to the list has generated more mail than the issue you
realised.  Ah well that's life, and for some who are in isolated
circumstances, no doubt the extra messages made them a little less lonely.

I am not an expert in privacy law (or any law for that matter) but my
understanding is that a list such as this is regarded as public domain in
that it is not a private correspondence or conversation between two
individuals.  In Australia, a law has just been passed that a person cannot
forward another's email to a 3rd party without the permission of the
original writer, but how that is actually monitored  (unless the originator
made it an issue) or whether that applies in the US are other matters.

Where an email is between two parties only, then it may be that the email
belongs to the addressee.  I can recall the issue of the letters of Diana,
Princess of Wales being stolen from James Hewitt and when Diana's family
tried to get them back it was ruled they were the property of Hewitt and it
was up to his sense of decency (or lack of it) what he did with them.  But
then, that is UK law so may not be universal.

I would suggest that if this email is the only thing your principal or
administrator has 'against' you then it would be dismissed as mischief
making, but in a litigious society such as the US appears to be, then I
would  be keeping copies of it and any other correspondence I had had with
that person as well as contacting my Union rep just to keep them up to speed
in case it becomes a storm in a teacup.

But you raise an interesting issue that clearly needs discussion - I look
forward to it, and it is on-topic as we need to be able to inform/ warn our
colleagues and students of its outcome as part of our duty of care for
Internet safety.

Cheers
Barbara

Barbara Braxton
Teacher-Librarian
Palmerston District Primary School
Kosciuszko Avenue
PALMERSTON   ACT 2913
AUSTRALIA

T. 02 6205 6162
F. 02 6205 7242
E. barbara@austarmetro.com.au
W.http://www.palmdps.act.edu.au

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