E-Mail Takes the Stand and Companies Take a Stand on E-Mail

http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/98/11/biztech/articles/11email.html

This article discusses the way some of today's companies are taking a second look at how to handle e-mail, especially after e-mail messages were used extensively in an antitrust suit against Microsoft. That use of email is discussed in the article Antitrust Case Is Highlighting Role of E-Mail.

http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/98/11/biztech/articles/02soft.html

Questions:

1. Businesses do back-ups of their databases to avoid data loss if a computer failure occurs. They often keep these back-ups for years because they often need records about things that happened years earlier, such as payments, shipments to customers, warranties, insurance policies, and employment and tax records. Explain how a company should decide whether and how long to keep backups of email.

2. Assume you are the CEO of a company in a highly competitive industry and you have just read these articles about email messages being used as evidence in a lawsuit. Explain why these articles should or should not affect internal guidelines limiting the use of email. (In other words, to what extent should people in the business be encouraged to use email freely for genuine business purposes?)

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