Re: E-mail copyright on Mailing lists

Tracy Marks (tmar[_at_]tiac.net) wrote about the archives of a list:
>
> Now a situation has arisen in which the list has the opportunity to
> post all the archives of the group since its inception on a public
> site on the Web.

An initial reading by this non-lawyer suggests that the argument will basically hinge on "implied license." By posting to the list, you have arguably given implicit permission to readers (subscribers of the list) to read the material; this implies permission to copy it, since electronic copies must be made in order for the reader to read.

What the list "owner" (a technical rather than legal term) is perhaps arguing is that the implicit license you have given extends further than you think it did.

I would argue, and I suspect most on this list will agree, that you still own copyright to the material you created and that you (in the absence of a prior agreement with the list owner) are a better judge of what permissions you licensed than he/she. As copyright owner, you control the exclusive right to authorize copies, and the listowner (who may claim a "compilation" copyright in the aggregate material) should obtain permission from each contributor before expanding the audience beyond a scope originally and reasonably anticipated by contributors.

I also suspect that there is not a lot of caselaw precedent to rely upon here, though others may point out otherwise.

David Dailey (ddailey[_at_]williams.edu) Received on Thu Oct 31 1996 - 18:03:41 GMT