What is your opinion about start-ups adding legalese to email?

Althought this is something that many companies (typicaly large ones) do, my understanding is that such messages do not in fact have any legal standing.

To do it just to try to sound 'corporate', or bigger than you are seems a bit unnecessary to me - I think it sends the wrong kind of message to customers.

When I receive footers like that from a large corporation, I accept it because there are obviously highly placed morons that feel it must be done. Hopefully whoever I'm dealing with isn't part of that chain of command.

If I were to receive this kind of footer from a small company, I would immediately infer that the entire company was not worth doing business with. If they are this dumb when they are small, imagine how they'll be when they get big!

When I receive emails, with text like the one in your example, it makes me think the people sending it are idiots. Probably with too many lawyers on their payroll. The amount of lost productivity over this type of thing must be enormous.

What legal expert came up with the notion that I should read through an entire email, and when I get to the end of that email I get a notice saying I should not have read the email!!

Think of it this way. Suppose I'm walking down the street and I drop a letter I just typed up on the sidewalk. Suppose the bottom of the letter says:

"The information contained on this page is confidential and top secret, is intended only for the use of the recipient named above, and may be legally privileged. If the reader of this message is not the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any dissemination, distribution or copying of this communication is strictly prohibited. If you have received this communication in error, please walk to a certified paper shredding facility and destroy this document immediately. You must notify the police and our office within 24 hours. Be sure to save your shredding receipt and mail this to us along with a letter signed by a notary public. Thank You."

Is the person who picks this up required to do as instructed? Or should the person who dropped the letter bear all responsibility?

Like every website that puts a copywrite message at the bottom of their home page. Like anyone wants to copy your crap and if they did you would actually waste time and money to take them to court.

When is my work protected? Your work is under copyright protection the moment it is created and fixed in a tangible form that it is perceptible either directly or with the aid of a machine or device.

Our attorney says that it is not so much one expects the recipient to do, but rather that courts have accepted the presence of such notices as helpful in protecting any IP that may be in or attached to the email. Here's our version, bit shorter, less "demanding", and done in gray, 10 pt Calibri, so not too obtrusive:

"CONFIDENTIALITY NOTICE: This email communication including any attachments contains information confidential and proprietary to [company]. It is intended only for the recipients identified above and should not be disclosed to third parties without written permission from [company]. If you are not an intended recipient, please notify legal@[company].com and remove all copies of this email."