On Wed, 17 Mar 1999, Keith Galestock <kgalestock[_at_]nacs.org> wrote:
>
> as a part 2 of my Q on e-mail copyright protection... I understand that
> the law regarding postal letters is that the recipient may do as they
> please with the content of a letter sent to them; would it not be the
> same for an e-mail message?
The sender would ordinarily retain copyright in the content but the recipient owns the paper on which it is written. Similar situation arises with cartoonists who work freelance for newspapers - the paper often supplies the materials and then claims an ownership stake on that basis. Very aggrevating for freelance artists as they have o provide their own materials or get specific agreement from the paper.
As to the e-mail issue - I don't see any basis for assuming a licence to reproduce or diffuse over a cable system unless there is pretty clear evidence of that intent and agreement. I suspect some correspondence could have an implied confidentiality aspect too.
CS
"Galvanising Ideas"
Colin Seeger, Consultant, Management of Intellectual Property. P.O Box 3227, Tamarama, Sydney, Australia 2026 Tel: (61) (02) 9365 1186, Fax (61) (02) 9365 1286 Received on Thu Mar 18 1999 - 11:22:45 GMT
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