CDR: Re: Re: Gore Office Accused of e-mail Diversion

[Greg Broiles]

At 06:05 AM 10/3/00 -0700, Michael Motyka wrote:

>I see no big deal here : you can only produce records that exist. Making
>the choice to delete e-mails simply means that you want them to be more
>like a conversation than a printed document. Destroying a document prior
>having received an order to produce it as far as I know is no crime.
>Almost like an ISP service having a stated policy of not keeping logs
>beyond some fixed time period. Next.

This is not so simple, when the person/entity destroying the records is a 
government agency - they have a statutory duty to maintain records 
according to sometimes complicated schedules. Government officials, when 
conducting government (er, the people's) business, can't just delete things 
they find inconvenient or embarrassing the same way that individuals can. 
Corporate or organizational actors may also be limited in their ability to 
destroy records by statute or by organizational rules designed to create 
and maintain accountability.


--
Greg Broiles
gbroiles at netbox.com