Thursday, March 10, 2005

Interesting Reading

I have been trying to get up to speed with document management/content management/workflow management or whatever this industry is calling it this week.
I have been reading the Sarbanes Oxley act (they should rename it the "Enron Act"), talk about some edge of your seat reading, I can hardly wait for the movie.
This legislation is at times laughable (I guess it's not so funny if you worked for Enron). At other times you see how it can be profitable for vendors offering solutions (another great industry buzzword).
Here is one of my favorite passages from Section 802 regarding e-mails

From KVS
Second, SOX Section 802 provides for prison sentences of up to twenty years for persons who delete an email "in contemplation” of a federal investigation or “matter” that does not yet exist", if a jury is convinced that such person’s intent was to “impede, obstruct or influence” such future matter. Presuming the inevitability of a federal investigation into the financial activities of any large public company, corporate officers who adopt policies requiring systematic deletion of all corporate emails, within weeks of their creation, for the very purpose of preventing possible adverse evidence from falling into the hands of federal investigators, are subjecting themselves to possible criminal prosecution.

I just love the "in contemplation” of a federal investigation or “matter” that does not yet exist", granted there is a comma after the statement. Let me break out my "Miss Cleo" crystal ball and see if I can predict if the jackball in the next cubicle who's working on the same project as I am is going to go off the deep end and start screwing our customers because he wife finds out he's screwing the checkout girl at the local grocery store.

Hey you have got to find some humor when your reading this kind of stuff.

At the office we talk about R.O.I. which usually means "return on investment" after reading this stuff I am beginning to think it means "risk of incarceration".

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