Emails and Copyrights

Contrary to popular belief which states that “an email is not copyright protected once it is sent”, surprisingly, emails are protected by intellectual property laws, by default; it’s protected by copyright laws once penned down or created by the sender. It should be noted that an email is classified as a written work and is treated as such under copyright laws.

Due to the above stated classification of emails, one cannot re-post or redistribute the contents of an email in any format/media without the explicit permission (or a lack of an objection) of the author of the email in question. If an email is directly sent to you, it does not give you the right to distribute it; the same is the case when considering a mailing list or a newsgroup.

In conclusion, one should always remember that an email is treated as a written work, hence making it copyright-able material by default.