ANST - Children stop...

[Timothy A. McDaniel]

On Sun, 28 Jun 1998, SCOTT A WAGGONER <maynedelacroix at juno.com> wrote:
> Any Email I receive becomes MY property to do with as I wish,

I believe that that happens not to be the case, or is at best unclear.
As I understand it in the case of paper letters, the letter is the
property of the recipient, the words remain copyrighted by the writer.
Thus, a recipient's estate can sell an actual letter from Frank
Sinatra, say, or you can pass it around to be read, but even if a
biographer buys it he can't quote the entire letter in his book.
Since the US adoption of the Berne Convention, copyright adheres to
the writer at the moment of composition, even if there's no notice on
the writing.

Pug gave an example of "taping a phone conversation and replaying it"
as maybe being legal.  I believe that states' laws vary.  I think that
in Texas, one participant can tape a phone conversation.  However, I
think some other states require both participants to agree to the
taping.

Note well: I AM NO LEGAL EXPERT.  THIS DOES NOT CONSTITUTE LEGAL
ADVICE.  I'm just going by what I've seen several people write on the
net, and we know how reliable THAT is.  Further, laws on electronic
communication are still evolving, and have holes.  Consult a lawyer if
you have questions.

Let's just leave legal issues aside, unless someone has hard info.
I suggest you just think "there might be problems here; the situation
is unclear".

> I DID as a matter of fact send it publicly because I felt that was
> the best punishment for the personal attack.

As for netiquette, I have almost two decades of experience on the net,
and though I sometimes sin against netiquette, at least I know it
fairly well:

You're utterly, completely, absolutely, beyond question, *dead wrong*
in this.  If it's private e-mail, you keep it private.  Even if
someone acts like a jerk in e-mail to your wife.  His keeping it
between him and her was correct (e.g., see the suggestions for dispute
resolution at the back of the SCA governing documents), even if he was
bad in what he wrote.

In my firm opinion, you *do* owe Othar an apology pronto
for taking it public.

Daniel de Lincolia
-- 
Tim McDaniel (home); Reply-To: tmcd at crl.com; 
if that fail, tmcd at austin.ibm.com is my work address.
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