Is Email Communication Copyrighted

[jay4rest]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? New Mexico

I run a podcast and I received an email from a listener commenting and asking questions about two episodes I did. I dedicated an entire podcast to responding to his 4 page email line by line.

After the podcast was posted he sent me a removal notice claiming that he would sue me for copyright infringement if I did not remove that podcast. I did in fact remove it for fear of being sued.

My question is can he sue me for copyright infringement on an email he sent to my podcast email address? Or does freedom of press apply? Or does the fair use rule apply?

Thank you so much.
Jay

 

[swalsh411]

Tell this person to pound sand. When you respond to any sort of broadcast (tv, radio, web site, blog, etc) you should know darn well that your feedback may be shown/read to others. Half of journalism is people responding to things that other people have said.

 

[The Occultist]

You may wish to consider adding a disclaimer next to your posted email address indicating that all submissions become your property.

 

[InsaneJane]

Unless the email states that the info within is personal or copy wrighted then it is not.
You did the right thing removing it from public veiw after being asked, but no you did not have too.

 

[quincy]

I agree with The Occulist.

Read the terms of service for this site, for instance: "All postings reflect the views of the author but become the property of FreeAdvice." When you post on this site, you are agreeing to abide by its terms and you agree to give to FreeAdvice all rights to what you have written. If FreeAdvice wanted to publish a book using the posts from this forum, for instance, they could do that without infringing on the rights of those who have posted here, because those who have posted here have knowingly and willingly given up their rights to the words in their posts.

The FA terms of service surrender of rights is similar to what you will read on the editorial page of any newspaper. The content of the letters published in the Letter to the Editor sections becomes the property of the paper and not of the writer.

By the way, I disagree with both InsaneJane and with swalsh.

I disagree with swalsh's statement that "half of journalism is responding to things that other people have said" (you can just read the definition of journalism to see how wrong this statement is) and I disagree with swalsh when he says that you are safe in telling the emailer to "pound sand." Email content legally belongs to the person who created it and not to the recipient of the email, without permission to use the content of the email having been granted to the recipient by the author.

And I disagree with InsaneJane that a notice of copyright is needed for material to be copyrighted. As soon as writings are fixed in a tangible form, they are automatically copyrighted.

So, to answer your question: Yes, the emailer can sue you for copyright infringement. Infringement suits over emails or letters are rare, however, and it would be even rarer for such a suit to be successful. That does not prevent one from being filed against you, however, and you having to deal with it.

I suggest you follow The Occulist's advice, which can help to prevent a similar situation from arising in the future.