Are letters and email copyrighted?

Question

If someone writes a letter or an email to me personally, can I reprint it?

Answer 1

Copyright is automatic on any original work you produce - writing, painting, photography, music etc. No-one may reproduce your work without your permission. Proving you own copyright can sometimes be difficult but if you wrote it you have it. If you are working for someone they could well own all your written work done for the organisation and they hold the copyright to it. If ever you want to reproduce someone else's work, get permission first and state where it came from in your work.

Answer 2

I disagree - as far as I know letters are intellectual property like anything else you write and cannot be reprinted without your permission. I wouldnt do it. E mails are another matter - any 10 year old can change an e mail. My best advice - ask permission of the author and get it before reprinting someone's work. It is always the proper thing to do when dealing with something you did not write. Pax - C.

Answer 3

As far as I know, no to both. They can be copyrighted if they are gathered and printed as a book. This happens often with famous writers. One of my old professors at Creighton University is currently collecting all of the letters of Henry James. It is a huge project, indeed.

I should mention something about email. At state universities, email is public record and probably cannot be copyrighted except by the state of the institution (i.e., the State of Iowa "owns" all email sent from the servers at the University of Iowa). You may want to look into Yahoo and Google mail fine print. There were likely some changes to email ownership and privacy after the Patriot Act went into effect.

Answer 4

Yes

Answer 5

they are not copyrighte dunless they go through a copyright agency like published books and articles do!