Re: ASCII Art Fart for Tue, 2004 Nov 9

In article <419...@gmail.com>, Veronica Karlsson wrote:
> Or, they have learned that it is less stressful in the long run to have
> a news reader that don't allow them to keep a lot of old junk lying
> around (IOW, it is a perfectly sensible preference).
>
       Plausible for a personal machine.
       In the UK, if you're an ISP you've got to keep comprehensive and 
usable archives of everything your customers post. I think it's for a 
period of 7 years. Failure to do so? Directors go to jail (potentially at 
least). It's all justified in the name of catching paedophiles and 
stalkers. Shows how little our politicians and legislators know about the 
ever-changing face of technology. Think joyfully about the storage 
implications of that.
       If you're posting for or from work (that would almost certainly 
include "work from home"), then your employer is probably legally liable 
for anything you say and do at work, or using work facilities. So they'll 
want to control your records from any machines that are theirs, or which 
use their facilities (post from your own machine, but using a modem 
connection that's paid for by work? Records please, sir, or unemployment 
looms.) What the control policies are is up to the company - it could be 
"retain indefinitely"; it could be "delete all email and news records 
after 30 days, without archiving them either corporately or individually" 
(Microsoft's internal policy, as recent litigation brought to light. Not 
that MS would admit to having such a policy.)

    ObASCII : ����??    
              ^^^^^^ compressed ASCII text, the original of which read 
"Compression is computationally costly and does not necessarily help in 
record keeping. Particularly if it's only ever likely to be used by PC 
Plod."
       
-- 
Aidan Karley,
Geologist,
"You are in a maze of twisty little presentation styles, all [different | 
alike]."