>Why should it be protected ? If somebodey sends me a letter/email, AFAIK I am free to disclose that information unless I agreed *beforehand* to keep it confidential. Putting the content on the internet might not be "best style" in personal topics, but is a great tactic when confronted by somebody like the person in question - as long as I am either certain of the validity of the originating sender (email *exchange* sufficient probably) or signify the sender as "supposedly by".
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>This also means that those multiline email footers "you may not divulge any of the content of this email if this is erroneosly adressed to you" is blustering: if the sender is too stupid to handle his email client, he has to suffer the consequences.

WHere I work a person sent a colleague an e-mail which had as its first line (in the body, not the "Subject" "You may not forward/communicate the content of this e-mail to anybody.". The e-mail went on to criticize the person for everything from how they tie their shoelaces to how they are too authoritarian when doing 'peer reviews'.

Needless to say the first thing done was to forward it to many others.



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>my 0.000001 $
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>thomas
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>>Good question, and I hope someone with legal knowledge answers. Let's assume someone accuses you of sharing personal emails with others and in the accusatory email he/she threatens a lawsuit. Since the threat was in an email (and the question of ownership of emails is still up for grabs), is disclosing the threat of the lawsuit considered private and protected? Certainly if the lawsuit is filed it is not, but I don't know about the 'threat of one.'
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>>>>just mark as "not available because {insert name(s) here} threaten(s) to sue".
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>>>>Trouble is, somebody wanting to create fuss can claim further injury from such a comment.
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>>>What, if someone threatens to sue you, it's a secret you're bound to keep? Isn't threat to sue a public thing?