Legal Questions

[liam88]

I've got in touch with other sources but I thought I'd get some opinions off you guys as well. If anybody coul help that would be great:

1. If you recieve and e-mail from a member of a company with no "private: this is intended for the reader only etc." at the bottom of it is it legal to have it posted up on the internet provided it is not edited?

2. If somebody's name and photograph is on a company website and there is not "copyright, do not use photos et." on it is it legal to post this up on another website provided there is nothing threatening/insulting/abusive along with it?

Like I said I'm getitng some other advice I just know a few are you know a lot about the web/law so I was hoping I could get some feedback.

Thanks in advance

[strangeirish]

Read this. US based, but very good advice, in my opinion.

[liam88]

Read this. US based, but very good advice, in my opinion.

Cheers mate! Has a look and still not quite sure where those involved stand...
If it makes it any easier for people who know law how about this (apoloigies in Advance to Adam-I'll change it if you want):

Say I have something to say about foot.ie and I e-mail Adam about it. He sends me back an e-mail from adam@foot.ie or whatever just;
"Dear Liam

[message]

Adam"

Nothing else-no "do not use this e-mail except for personal use" or anything.

Now I take that, no editing and stick it up on a website saying I e-mailed Adam and he sent me this.
Whether it's moral or not is the legally wrong?

Also say Adam had a photo of himself up on foot.ie saying "hi this is me I'm Adam" [no stated copyright or anything] and I copied the photo and put it on my site saying "this is Adam he runs foot.ie and sent me the e-mail" is this legally dodgy?

Hope you guys can help! Again Adam sorry the analogy just seemed logical-I'll chang eit if you like?

[John83]

IANAL, but here goes.

1. If you recieve and e-mail from a member of a company with no "private: this is intended for the reader only etc." at the bottom of it is it legal to have it posted up on the internet provided it is not edited?

Yes. That legal notice has no standing at all, and should be derided at every oppertunity.

2. If somebody's name and photograph is on a company website and there is not "copyright, do not use photos et." on it is it legal to post this up on another website provided there is nothing threatening/insulting/abusive along with it?

Not really. Publishing something on the internet doesn't de facto give up copyright - it doesn't need to be stated. On the other hand, it's rarely enforced, and more importantly, most people are quite happy to give you the okay to reuse the photo in a reasonable manner.

One final word of advice - don't trust a word of legal advice you get off random punters on the web, including me.

[dahamsta]

Copyright is implicit/implied Liam, copyright notices are optional, essentially to copperfasten copyright protection (so a lawyer can state in court that "to be doubly sure, a copyright notice was provided"). However they have very little legal authority, and as John83 has suggested, the "legal notices" at the foot of emails are much the same. Essentially, if it's written(/spoken/etc) in one form or another, and copyright isn't specifically waived, you have to assume it's protected.

To take your examples, bearing in mind that I'm not a lawyer either, in the first case you can quote from the source to get a point across (fair dealing, aka fair use), but the quotation needs to be limited; and it needs to be part of an original work, i.e. there has to be a point to it, so you'll need to comment on it / parody it, etc. The second example runs much along the same lines, although use of the photo could be considered a separate work.

In most cases it's advisable, if not just plain polite, to ask permission first.

adam

[liam88]

Thanks very much StrangeIrish John and Adam-will chat to the people invovled. Aye I know your not lawyers and their speaking to someone who should know the law behind it I thought i'd just get some opinions as a lot of you work with th net etc.