Mailing list topping and tailing

[Ivor Williams]

I know that the subject of corporate disclaimers comes up from time to time. I was wondering whether a general solution might be a good idea. If the mailing list code looks for a particular <TAG> ... </TAG>, and distributes only the text between the tags, that would be quite useful - certainly to me.   If the message contains no <TAG> pair, or the pair is syntactically incorrect, the entire message is distributed as per what happens at present. I am also stuck for a tag name.   My present client has a dickslammer which takes the biscuit, and includes the words: "If you are not an intended recipient please delete this e-mail and notify postmaster@$Corporate" . Yeouch!! Not only that, but the mails are also prefixed with a banner saying "Please read the disclaimer below".   I am currently subscribed in lurk mode at $Corporate, and digest mode at $Home; living in trepidation of inadvertantly replying on-list, and having the instructions taken literally.   From a legal perspective, the purpose of a mailing list address is to send the message to a _COMPUTER_, and the blurb about the intended recipient surely does not apply, as the recipient COMPUTER is not in itself capable of copying, disclosing, deleting or any other activity outside what it has been instructed to do. The fact that I have instructed the computer to extract a tagged snippet and forward just the snippet does not invalidate any confidences. It would be just the same if I had a human slave scribe sitting outside the corporate network, obeying my instructions to cut and paste the section and distribute this to a list of subscribers.   Has anybody done this already? How easy for someone to embrace the snake and patch Mailman for london.pm? What about other list managers, e.g. ezmlm?   What do others think? Am I tilting at wind(mill|ow)s?   Ivor.