Hello Chip- I'm nothing close to an expert on disease or pathogen transfer, but I think that the same criticism of Rich would apply to you. It seems as if the degree of risk is still high enough that taking it simply because you had extra corns is unnecessary and irresponsible. I do understand, though, that herpers aren't generally aware that this could pose a problem and if they knew perhaps many of them wouldn't do it at all.
I would say that a responsible herper would always try their best to avoid releasing animals in areas where they weren't collected or would try to avoid collecting a surplus of animals to begin with. It's also irresponsible to release a w/c animal at the place of capture if the animal in question was collected (according to what I've read). I'm not trying to sound like the ethics police here, yet in a way I am. At the very least we can set up a dialogue of herping ethics and the duties of responsible herpers.
I don't really blame anyone who does this sort of thing ignorantly, but once a herper has been made aware of this risk and if they continue to do take it, well, they are negligent.
I'm sorry, but the whole point of this conversation is the issue of this "risk" you allude to. At this point, I don't believe there is any evidence of "risk" at all beyond conjecture that has no foundation of fact at all. To state that people who don't give credence to the fears drummed up by mere speculation, and therefore somehow "negligent", is in itself not only quite irresponsible, but also condescending while lacking in merit.
So tell me, what sort of pathogens that are known to be in the captive populations of corn snakes that would pose this mortal risk to the native wild populations? And while thinking upon this, please tell me where those pathogens of such concern originated from in the first place.