is email a copyright?

I know this question is odd and may seem small in the scheme of things. However I have wondered who owns email? Does the sender automatically have copyright, that prevents the receiver from publishing and or distrubuting the email? or

For example, lets say party A sends an email to party B. Party A request that Party B does not share the email. Party B then gives the email from party A to party C. Party C takes the email and publishes it to a discussion forum, without party A's permission.

I know for me it would not ethical to take someone's private email and publish it on to a public forum. However I was wondering is there a legal issue here, and what is the legal issue, if any?

I was also wondering if an email is sent from one's place of employment, who owns the email, does the employer have a right to read the email?

Is there any information about email issues (besides sexual offenders luring children on the net) that would answer my questions.

Chai South
<chaisouth[_at_]yahoo.com> Received on Sun May 14 2000 - 02:30:08 GMT