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Path: utzoo!linus!philabs!cmcl2!seismo!ut-sally!oakhill!mot!al
From: al@mot.UUCP (Al Filipski)
Newsgroups: net.legal,net.jokes.d
Subject: Re: DEC memo
Message-ID: <107@mot.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 20-Feb-85 12:06:22 EST
Article-I.D.: mot.107
Posted: Wed Feb 20 12:06:22 1985
Date-Received: Sun, 24-Feb-85 04:48:12 EST
Organization: Motorola Microsystems, Phoenix AZ
Lines: 37
Xref: linus net.legal:1026 net.jokes.d:688

> OK, pal.  Where did you get this? Yo in a heap o trouble, boy. This 
> 	.  .  .	
> 	.  .  .	
> 3) This memo was strickly confidential. You have broken several 
> laws. I do not know whether you will be prosecuted. If you really 
> want to know what happens when the shit hits the fan, stick 
> around. I will be sending this to our legal department. They will 
> want to know where you got it. You are in a lot of trouble, 
> whether this memo was fabricated, or NOT.
> 	.  .  .	
> 	.  .  .	
> 					John Williams
> 				Digital Equipment Corperation
>
Even though this was in net.jokes, is this a real threat? 
(Assuming that this refers to a real memo and not some malicious 
fabrication.) I thought "confidentiality" had to do with rules a
corporation makes for its employees.  If they break the rules,
they can be fired, even sued, because they have a contract with
the corporation. But, if I get a paper that some corporation wrote
"confidential" on and I show it to someone, can the corporation send
their lawyers to "want to know where I got it"?  What if I don't
tell? Do they get out the rubber hoses?  Is divulging a secret
you never agreed to keep a crime or tort? Is it my burden to prove
that it's a real memo?  I thought newspapers
published information from leaked memos all the time.

--------------------------------
Alan Filipski, UNIX group, Motorola Microsystems, Tempe, AZ U.S.A
{seismo | ihnp4 } ! ut-sally ! oakhill ! mot ! al
--------------------------------
Who would think that these are the opinions of my employer?

P.S. [:-)]The trouble with sending questions like this to the net
is that they never get any response from lawyers.  I know this
because the answers generated often make sense and do not start
"Well, on the one hand, if <x>, it may or may not depend on whether..."