[Coco] Quoting private email

[Dennis Bathory-Kitsz]

Folks,

I've been a student of copyright for over 40 
years -- might as well take the exam! You might 
recall I did the first significant general 
audience article on software copyright back in 
1980 in 80 Microcomputing, with an interview of 
Bill Gates among many others. I teach 
intellectual property for musicians at one of our 
state colleges. So I know this issue is not a simple one.

The article Art quotes is often referenced, but 
is still just one analysis. A definitive email 
case has not been adjudicated. I am not 
interested in being a test case on the other end 
of whatever money pot EmbeddedSW, .

Several points. A copyright notice is not 
necessary and "little protection" is not the same 
as no protection. Further, the copyright notice 
was likely stripped out of the forward, as the 
email that requested its removal had a very clear 
notice; the rest of the posted email's content 
was (I assume) verbatim, so no "innocent 
infringement" applies. As for monetary damages, 
the email was used in a way that generated a 
somewhat dismissive thread (not least because of 
the author's own apparent attitude) and could be 
construed as damaging to the business (again, I'm 
not interested in being the test case).

We come up to the 10th anniversary of this list 
on October 6th. This was not how I planned to celebrate! :)

Dennis





At 02:32 AM 9/26/2013, you wrote:
>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.
>
>----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>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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> > Coco at maltedmedia.com
> > http://five.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/coco
>
>--
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>Coco at maltedmedia.com
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