Can emails and public web postings be published freely?

[Akicita]

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

If a person writes an email (to me, in this example) or posts on a public web forum, can those writings be published/distributed? Does the original writer retain some legal ownership of their words, even though they have posted them publicly, or can they be excerpted for publication?

In this case I ask permission of those authors simply to be decent and nice about it, but is that a *legal* requirement; could things written in an email or messageboard be published at-will?

 

[racer72]

If a person writes an email (to me, in this example) or posts on a public web forum, can those writings be published/distributed?

Maybe and no. It depends on the content of emails. Posting on web forums, such as this one, are copyrighted by the owner of the site. I've seen other forums that grant the copyrights of posts to the posters. It depends on how the forum is set up and it's user agreement.

 

[FlyingRon]

There is almost certainly copyright held by someone. As racer points out, the poster, by the conditions of the site, may have transfered rights to the site. In other cases (and as with emails), the author retains the rights (perhaps granting some use to the site he's posting on).

Unless you have Google's lawyers, you best get permission first. Google gets buy with flaunting the law, but you will lose most likely.