Yahoo’s new CEO, Carol Bartz, has offered a bounty of $1000 to Yahoo employees who turn in known leaksters of internal email. Seems Ms. Bartz is willing to pay the $1000 reward out of her own paycheck.

And to the leakster of the internal email Ms. Bartz has urged the culpable employee to confess their misdeed and offer his or her resignation. “I hope whoever did it, feels bad enough to come forward and resign.” said Ms. Bartz in an email that was forwarded to AllThingsD.

Ms. Bartz, in her weekly company-wide emails, has also demanded that employees stop leaking emails to the media. Sadly, I don’t think its working. Sounds more like a respect issue than an ethics issue at the company.

The Wall Street Journal obtained another leaked copy of the email in which Ms. Carol Bartz wrote, “Maybe we should have a weekly bounty on such people. I will throw in the first thousand dollars.”

There have been countless times that companies have been left with more than just embarrassment on their face as the result of leaked emails.

Recently, in Florida there was an informal investigation into the alleged illegal campaign tactics of the backers of Florida’s Amendment 2. Emails were obtained exclusively by the Bilerico Project Florida, which purported to show proof of illegal money funneling activities. The sent emails purported to give details to donors showing them how to illegally skirt campaign finance reporting laws by funneling money through a non-profit organization.

I won’t go into the details or the politics of that investigation but the point is that before you hit the “send” button on any email you should assume it can be read by everyone.

I say this not to create fear about sending out emails but to reinforce the idea that good email habits must be followed. Limit the number of people you include on your “To:” line. Limit the number of people you include on the “Cc:” line. Write your email in a text editor first. Then go back and review the text for any potential legal problems that could occur if that email were to be made public.

Lastly, it should be said that people who leak email are not only breaking the trust that has been placed in them by the original writer of the sent email but of all those who participate and act responsibly in the communication process.