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Wrong, e-mail *is* protectable by copyright, it just might not seem like it since it's so casual and pervasive in society. There's not necessarily much reason to have an e-mail actually registered with the Copyright Office either, but that does not mean it's devoid of common law copyright protection. The official designation of what deserves copyright protection is as follows: "original works of authorship fixed in any tangible medium of expression, now known or later developed, from which they can be perceived, reproduced, or otherwise communicated, either directly or with the aid of a machine or device." Furthermore, unpublished letters enjoy protection from "fair use copying", which was based on Harper Row Publishers Inc. vs. Nation Enterprises in 1985, and cited in writer JD Salinger's suit against Random House. Now, the big but in the situation is whether publically available e-mail qualifies as "published" or not, or is still just private communication meant for a limited audience. Even within those parameters, merely copying, or "quoting", someone's e-mail within the same forum in which the orignal message appeared probably does NOT constitute a significant copyright violation, but reproduction of the message somewhere wholly outside that forum without the original author's permission probably does. What "quoting" more significantly becomes is a *major* etiquette issue. - Michael Intellectual Property Paralegal ---------- >From: Earnie & Barbara Knight <[log in to unmask]> >To: [log in to unmask] >Subject: Re: Try another tune please >Date: Wed, Nov 17, 1999, 8:43 PM > > Sorry, Kathryn: > > Email is not considered private nor copyrighted. If you don't want it to be > made public the best policy is "don't send it." > > Barbara > > > At 09:58 PM 11/17/99 -0700, you wrote: >>janet paterson wrote: >>> At 16:10 1999/11/16 -0700, kathrynne wrote, in part: >>> >I trust you asked for and received Martha's permission to >>> >'share' her private e-mail to you. If so, that's fine. >> >>> there is no privacy in cyberspace and >>> no 'laws' governing behaviour >> >>In the United States, the 1978 Copyright Law provides that an individual >>holds copyright to written material, whether copyright has been applied >>for or not. Thus, it is not 'sharing' but a copyright infringement to >>reproduce that person's written material without permission. This >>applies to all text, including letters and e-mail posts. Canadian >>copyright laws may differ, however. >> >>Best, >>Kathrynne >> >>