"scanning" e-mail [WAS: 3 Free Gmail invites]

Thu Aug 19 18:46:59 UTC 2004

On Aug 19, 2004, at 2:24 PM, Robert Bonomi wrote:

>>            I can post it publicly,
>
> You _cannot_ legally do that.  copyright infringement.
>
>>                                    put it into a search engine, or
>> deleted it, and you have no say in the matter.  Might not be polite,
>> but it certainly it not illegal.  Don't like it, don't send me e-mail.
>> (Please. :)
>
> You own the 'artifact' that is the message,  the 'intellectual property
> rights' (i.e. "copyright") remain with the author/sender.
>
> Doing thing with the message that require consent of the copyright 
> holder
> are things you cannot do _without_ that consent.  :)
>
> 'Private use' copying is _not_ one of those things, however.

This is not at all clear to me, and has been argued differently by 
different people - including more than one JD.

I also know several companies / people who post e-mail publicly.  Hell, 
NANOG has public, searchable archives.  Does that mean Merit is 
violating the law?

Either way, the argument stands just fine if you remove the "post it 
publicly" part.

-- 
TTFN,
patrick