Re: copyrighting of an email

Bob Bernstein <bob[_at_]bernsteinlaw.com> asked:
>
> Can one prevent a recipient from republishing an email by copyrighting
> it? Put another way, if I receive an email message directed to me from
> another, and the sender indicates it may not be republished without the
> consent of the sender, am I free to copy it to anyone else?

Understand that this question (as far as I know) has not yet been asked in a judicial forum; but absent a definitive opinion, I would play it safe and rely on copyright law as it applies to letters. The principle is that the copyright in a mailed letter belongs to the AUTHOR; the recipient of the letter owns only the physical copy of the letter, not the right to reproduce or distribute it. Applying this to the email world, it would be safest to assume that, as the recipient of an email, you "own" a digital "copy" of the email, which you may archive and print a copy of. You may not forward the message to others, in original or modified form, without the permission of the original author. Now in actual practice this sort of thing is done all the time; in fact, it is done so commonly that an argument could be made that the author of any email gives implied consent to such uses. However, if the author in your case has gone to the trouble of expressly stating that the message may not be republished without his consent, I would respect that, if I were in your position.

Bob Cumbow
<cumbr[_at_]perkinscoie.com> Received on Mon Apr 21 1997 - 16:31:41 GMT