Email Marketing Tools

I’ve seen several cases where a company sends email and tacks on little notices at the bottom, saying, for example:

The information contained in this message is intended only for the recipient, and may be a confidential attorney-client communication or may otherwise be privileged and confidential and protected from disclosure. If the reader of this message is not the intended recipient, or an employee or agent responsible for delivering this message to the intended recipient, please be aware that any dissemination or copying of this communication is strictly prohibited. If you have received this communication in error, please immediately notify us by replying to the message and deleting it from your computer.

Or:

This e-mail is for the use of the intended recipient(s) only. If you have received this e-mail in error, please notify the sender immediately and then delete it. If you are not the intended recipient, you must not use, disclose, or distribute this e-mail without the author’s prior permission.

Now, I don’t know that much about legal issues, but it seems like this can’t possibly be binding. Generally you have to agree to be bound by such things, right? Even in Software EULA’s, you have the option of not installing the software, and thus avoiding the EULA.

In this case, it seems like simply by reading the email you are being legally restrained. If it IS attorney-client privileged, then hasn’t the Attorney or Client broken their privilege by sending the email to you? They can’t say ‘Oops, WE didn’t break privilege, but YOU are if you tell anybody /else/!’ Can they?