Remember the beginning of "Jerry Maguire?" Tom Cruise has a revelation one night and writes a company-wide memo about how unethical and off-track his sports agent business is.

Well, we all know what happened to Jerry Maguire. (Unfortunately, "You had me at hello" also happened in that movie, but I digress.)

Fast forward to Yahoo's infamous, so-called "peanut butter" memo of 2006. The Yahoo exec who penned the memo has been Jerry Maguired. It was reported Thursday that three more executives have decided to jump ship, according to two blogs -- AllThingsD and TechCrunch -- and the New York Times. The reports were based on unnamed sources with knowledge of the situation.

The best known of the trio, Brad Garlinghouse, a senior vice president, wrote a scathing memo in 2006, arguing that Yahoo had gone awry and needed a major housecleaning. The so-called manifesto became known as the "peanut butter" memo.

Garlinghouse's departure is the latest loss for the struggling search giant. The Sunnyvale company lost four other prominent leaders in the past week, and the exodus could worsen Yahoo's instability.

Speaking of company memos, Mike Elgan over at Datamation.com writes in his column that in the confusion between private email and official business communication, workers' rights are being trampled. Resurrecting the company memo could clarify this issue.

Elgan writes:

A federal appeals court ruled this week that companies can't read your e-mail or instant messages without your permission if you or your employer are using an outside service provider.

That covers, for example, e-mail sent via Gmail or chats via AIM. And it even covers you if the employer outsources the provision of e-mail or chat and provides you with the PC, laptop, phone or pager. As part of the ruling, the court also prohibited contracted companies from providing e-mails or IM logs if they're requested by the companies that are their customers.

... To users, personal e-mail -- even if sent via the company's network and e-mail servers -- and especial chat are akin to random, casual spoken conversation (and therefore as privacy-protected speech). So people "drop their guard" via e-mail and chat, and make off-the-cuff, half-baked, comments. They vent, say things they don't really mean or speak in a way that's acceptable for a private conversation with a friend, but unacceptable professional business communication.

Check out Elgan's column, and say a toast tonight to Mr. Peanut Butter, Brad Garlinghouse.