[Foundation-l] Fwd: Foundation-l

[Thomas Dalton]

On 27 June 2010 13:55, Dennis During <dcduring at gmail.com> wrote:
> Are you saying that one can't disclose correspondence to any third-party
> without consent of both parties?  In what jurisdictions?

The law is a little out-of-date. When someone sends you a physical
letter you can give that letter to anyone you like, since it is a
piece of tangible property that you own (unless you've signed a
non-disclosure agreement, or something). However, giving someone an
email involves copying it, so copyright becomes a factor. I think
forwarding an email without permission is, technically, a copyright
violation in any jurisdiction that hasn't created an exception to the
usual law for it (I suppose some jurisdictions might interpret sending
an email as including an implied license to copy it, so don't require
a statutory exception, but I don't know of any such interpretations).
What jurisdictions have such exceptions, I don't know. Google will
find you plenty of discussions (some reasonably well-informed) about
this issue.