Stupid - or Clever?

Pierre Dolet writes his Notes from the Cube . . .

Phone call from a man wanting some information. Sent it to him. Calls back: "I had to destroy this: it said 'Confidential' and I want to discuss this with others. I couldn't even talk with my outside counsel."

???

This is the first time anyone has had a problem with this. There are some Confidential things in the info sent; the only reason it was sent, in fact, is that the man had spoken with our Prez and, smelling a future biz opportunity, the Prez said when he called, "Send him our XYZ."

Well, we checked with our lawyer - he set up the Confidential document - and he suggested a couple of deletions that we could make to remove the Confidential parts of the XYZ. Did it, then took off the Confidential notice, then sent it. Man calls back: "You missed a 'Confidential' on page 17: I destroyed it. I only read public domain materials."

It was a standard-issue "Proprietary & Confidential" footer - a template from Word probably. Shows up on every other doc issued within every other company out there.

But, OK: re-moved it, re-sent it, added note: "All Confidential elements removed. Now available for public viewing, though not as public domain material: still has copyright protection." (Page 2 notice; again, standard issue)

Man calls back: "I only deal with public domain information. I destroyed it. Please send me materials that are in the public domain, as your President promised he would send me, or we cannot do business further on this."

Checked with Prez: Yep, he had inadvertently said "I'll send you our public domain booklet." Tried to explain that "public domain" means there are no protections whatever on the content: Man can use it how he will. Prez thinks I'm being over-sensitive.

I'm thinking the Man-we-want-to-maybe-do-business-with is either very stupid and doesn't understand the standard levels of copyright and proprietary information confidentiality - or he is very clever and intends to steal anything that is "public domain." I'm thinking we should contact our lawyer again. I'm thinking that, stupid or clever, I wouldn't go near that Man to do business with him with a ten-foot pole.

But I live in a Cube and no one cares what I think.