stewart@ihlpf.UUCP (R. J. Stewart) (12/09/85)
>> Peter...Now that you've taken the juiciest quotes out of my mail out of >> context, and posted my private correspondence to the net without my >> permission, I figure I might as well get equal time. > Several people (besides the principles) have made remarks of varying > intensity about the posting of (excerpts from?) mail received, without > getting permission from the sender of the mail. My question is this: > Is this merely an impolite thing to do, or is there some "legal" basis > for the objections? This subject has been debated at length in several forums on the net. The consensus reached is along the following lines: - The traditional legal view of paper mail is that the receiver owns the *object* (i.e. the letter itself), but the author maintains a copyright on the *contents* of the letter. This restricts the ways in which the contents can be made public. - In any case, it is common courtesy to check with someone before publicizing remarks they made to you in private. So, please use discretion about posting mail. Bob Stewart ihnp4!ihlpf!stewart