[USA] A Copyright Conundrum: Protecting Email Privacy
Kansas Law Review, Vol. 55, p. 101, 2007
http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=981729
NED SNOW
"The practice of email forwarding deprives email senders of privacy. Expression meant for only a specific recipient often finds its way into myriad inboxes or onto a public website, exposed for all to see. Simply by clicking the “forward” button, email recipients routinely strip email senders of expressive privacy. The common law condemns such conduct. Accordingly, the routine practice of email forwarding would violate principles of common-law copyright. The issue of whether common-law copyright today protects email expression turns on whether the Federal Copyright Act preempts common-law copyright. The Copyright Act includes a fair-use defense to infringing uses of unpublished works, and that defense likely applies to email forwarding. ... Email forwarding must yield to privacy protection."