Legal Question in Technology Law in California

As an Independent Contractor for a small company, I recently sent an email to a customer of mine that unintentionally got forwarded to the company's general mailbox when he emailed them about something different (it was on something different but my previous messages was attached below it) and that person read mine and forwarded it to a manager who read it and threatened to terminate our contract relationship if this happens again.

The email was joking about our company's prices (no trade secret. They have brochures w/price breakdown they freely give out to anybody who wants one), comparing it to a lower budget store (which also mentions somewhere else in the email that I shop there myself I might add). The manager forwared it to me (mentioning that store's name) and that it was a "degrading" comment and so forth.

In addition, as an IC, working on my own time, on my own laptop, and my own private email, what are my rights on privacy and copyrights? Were there any violations or laws broken from either the manager or the person that forwared it out?

What about the store the manager mentioned by name and said how "degrading" it was to be compared to them? If I forwarded this out to that company, would I be guilty of anything like copyrights violations?

Pardon me for lack of knowledge here, but I think this may be tied in with Intelectual Property or Copyrights. Actually was thinking more of Privacy but there's no category for that. Thank you.


Asked on 9/17/10, 2:16 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys
Bryan Whipple Bryan R. R. Whipple, Attorney at Law

I'm rather doubtful that you have the makings of a successful suit for damages here. Perhaps if the subject matter had been trade secrets of some kind, but there is certainly a lesser duty to use care to avoid disseminating disparaging comments about a company than to maintain the integrity of trade secrets. This seems like more of a lesson in exercising discretion.

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Answered on 9/23/10, 12:10 pm


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