[thelist] legalities of posting received emails on a website

Mike H ironmike at inav.net
Sun Nov 17 19:43:01 CST 2002


Merlene Paynter Blacha wrote:
> Does email and postal mail differ in legalities? My understanding of
> postal mail is that once the mail is put into the post the recipient
> of that letter is the "owner" of it legally. Would this not be the
> same for email? Once it's received does not the recipient then "own"
> the message?
>
> ~ Merlene
>
Not so...while working for the USPS for a number of years it was routine for us to post a "watch" on someone's mail in order to
return a mailpiuece to the sender undelivered. The USPS, as policy based on court cases, holds that title to a mail piece rests with
the sender until the mail piece is placed by a carrier or clerk into the designated mail receptacle of the recipient. Title then
passes to the recipient.  That's title to the mailpiece, not to any copyright inherent in the mailpiece.

The idea of title to a document being seperate from rights too copyright of that document are probably applicable to email, too. I
mean, the US Government will soon be monitoring all email, telephone conversations, etc. Do you think copyright will stop them from
monitoring???

Just to throw another non-lawyerly opinion into the muddle....

Mike




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