Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!uunet!aplcen!uakari.primate.wisc.edu!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!uwm.edu!psuvax1!psuvm!auvm!HMCVAX!BEVANS From: BEVANS@HMCVAX.CLAREMONT.EDU (Mathemagician) Newsgroups: bit.listserv.gaynet Subject: Re: Reprinting whole texts from e-mail Message-ID: Date: 19 Feb 90 23:38:00 GMT Sender: Gaynet Distribution List Reply-To: gaynet@ATHENA.MIT.EDU Lines: 19 Approved: NETNEWS@AUVM.BITNET Gateway X-Envelope-To: gaynet@ATHENA.MIT.EDU X-Vms-To: IN%"gaynet@ATHENA.MIT.EDU" X-To: gaynet@ATHENA.MIT.EDU Louie writes: >Can a third party, a journalist for example, "freely" quote letters that have >fallen into her hands? For instance, Politician X writes me a snotty letter. >I can't publish it since it belongs to PoliX, but I leak it to a reporter >who publishes it in the NY TIMES. Would that be legal? Nope. Again, the physical form of the letter (the paper and ink/pencil/ crayon/whatever) is the property of the recipient but the words are the property of the author. If the recipient send the letter to a third party, the letter now becomes the third party's property, but the words are still owned by the author. Under the copyright law as it is inter- preted presently, many biographical works would be illegal (_Newsweek_ wrote a story about this and mentioned one work about the Kennedy's, I think.) -- Brian Evans bevans at hmcvax.claremont.edu, hmcvax.bitnet, jarthur.claremont.edu