The E Policy Handbook: Designing and Implementing Effective EMail, Internet, and Software Policies
Authors: Nancy L. Flynn
Venue:  (2000)

From the Book:Think your organization is immune from e-risk? Think again. Misuse and abuse of corporate e-mail, Internet, and software assets can trigger costly litigation and protracted electronic nightmares that few employers are prepared to handle. Take the case of the engineering firm that illegally installed, on one hundred company computers, a $5,000 CAD software program, along with a less expensive word processing package. Oblivious to federal copyright law, the firm loaded software with single-user licenses onto multiple computer workstations and congratulated themselves for their business savvy. They had maximized computer capabilities at minimal cost-or so they thought. The firm's celebration came to an abrupt halt when a vengeful computer consultant, embroiled in a billing dispute with the engineers, reported the firm's software theft to the Software & Information Industry Association (SIIA) SPA Anti-Piracy division. SIIA-which relies on informants' tips to police copyright infringement for software manufacturers-gave the engineers fifteen days to cooperate with a full-blown audit of all the firm's computer software or face multiple charges of computer piracy. The potential financial impact? Tens of millions of dollars. Under federal copyright law, SIIA could recover the retail purchase price of all of the software the engineering firm should have bought, but did not. Alternatively, the SIIA could seek fines against the engineers of up to $150,000 for each item infringed. With two software programs illegally loaded onto 100 computers, the engineering firm faced potential fines of $30 million. Cha-ching! The engineering firm sorely regretted itsshortsighted decisions to copy software illegally and stiff a vendor. A five-figure, up-front investment in software (and payment of a mere $900 professional fee to the disgruntled consultant who reported them) could have saved the engineers an enormous amount of time, money, and embarrassment. In the end, the firm spent thousands of dollars on attorneys' fees and fines-which could have been avoided had the engineers put in place a written e-policy outlawing software piracy. This story, based in fact, illustrates just how vulnerable many businesses are to electronic risks. A visit from the software police is just one of the e-dangers employers face. Any employer who grants employees access to the company's e-mail, Internet, or Intranet system faces a multitude of potential legal liabilities. These e-risks, which are catalogued in this excellent book, include invasion of privacy, harassment, defamation, violation of copyright laws, and leakage of trade secrets. In our law practice, we frequently advise business clients on the importance of drafting written policies to govern sexual harassment, employee violence, and other objectionable or illegal conduct in the workplace. Perhaps because of all the media attention these issues have received, most employers understand the role written policies play in protecting their organizations from liability. Not so with e-policies. Many employers-including those whose businesses rely heavily on computer hardware and software-do not yet grasp the importance of establishing written e-policies to prohibit the unauthorized use or cop ying of software, and to regulate employee use of computers, e-mail, and the Internet. In our opinion, no business that uses computers should be without written software, e-mail, and Internet policies. The implementation of written policies is one of the best ways to ensure your computer assets are used as intended for business purposes. This book, The E-Policy Handbook, is the most comprehensive and helpful guide we know of to create these policies. Although we have written many software and e-mail policies for our clients, we have gained valuable insights and suggestions from this book which we now have incorporated into our policies. Besides being packed full of valuable information, The E-Policy Handbook is a delight to read. We enthusiastically commend it to you. Donald C. Slowik, Esq. Christopher T O'Shaughnessy, Esq. Lane, Alton & Horst Attorneys At Law Columbus, Ohio The ACM Portal is published by the Association for Computing Machinery. Copyright © 2010 ACM, Inc. Terms of Usage Privacy Policy Code of Ethics Contact Us Useful downloads: Adobe Acrobat QuickTime Windows Media Player Real Player