[Coco] Quoting private email

[Arthur Flexser]

I found this legal analysis at
http://homepage.cs.uri.edu/courses/fall2003/hpr108Bs1/readings/CF_email_short.html
:

If the e-mail were reproduced verbatim, or with only trivial changes,
the sender could also sue the recipient for violation of copyright
laws. However, if the e-mail was not marked with a copyright notice,
then the author can only recover the author's actual damages and "any
profits of the infringer that are attributable to the infringement",
and the defendants can claim "innocent infringement". 17 U.S.C. §§
401(d), 412, 504(b). Since most e-mail is not marked with a copyright
notice and the expression in most e-mail is not valuable [There is no
copyright protection for either ideas or information. 17 U.S.C. §
102(b)], copyright law gives little protection to typical e-mail.

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So, unless the forwarding of a private email causes the sender some
sort of monetary damage, it appears safe to forward it, or at least
unlikely to result in any damage award if the sender insists on suing.

Art


On Wed, Sep 25, 2013 at 11:00 PM, Dennis Bathory-Kitsz
<dennis-ix at maltedmedia.com> wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> Apparently the guy from EmbeddedSW found that his corporate email to a list
> member about EMUFDD had been quoted on the CoCo list back in May 2012. I'm
> guessing he self-googled and found the message in the archives. He sent a
> badly spelled email asking the message thread be removed.
>
> Just so you know, copyright law DOES protect the content of private email.
> If you want to pass on information from a private email -- even one from a
> company -- please paraphrase it but don't quote it without permission. Also
> remember that copyright covers the expression of an idea, but not the idea
> itself.
>
> Let's not provoke any crazies out there, okay?
>
> Thanks,
> Dennis
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
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