but you have not made any copies. Even e-mail messages are copyrightable. There may be an unwritten assumption that someone who sends an e-mail message to a huge list impliedly gives his or her permission to send it to the rest of the world, but this may not always be the case.
Question: John Bit and I are fellow members of list A. John sends a draft article to the list, and invites everyone to share their comments with other members. May I send a reply to the list, along with John’s article?
Answer: Yes. John sent out his article and invited comments. Consent to make copies can be inferred when one knows of a use and encourages it.[1] John’s conduct gives an implied license to list members to make copies of his article for purposes of accessing it and providing comments.
Question: I am a member of list B. My colleague Mary Byte subscribes to both list A and list B. Mary received a copy of John’s article from list A and forwarded it to me. May I share John’s article with other members of list B?
Answer: John’s sharing his article with list A impliedly gave permission to the members of list A to make copies for the purpose of reviewing the paper and offering comments. John’s actions don’t indicate he intended to share copies with list B members, so you cannot rely on implied consent to justify making copies. You’d have to rely on some other exception to make copies. The best way of handling this is to ask John if he wants his article circulated to list B. If he doesn’t, don’t.
- ↑ Field v. Google, Inc., 412 F.Supp.2d 1106, 1116 (D. Nev. 2006). See also John S. Sieman, Comment, Using the Implied License to Inject Common Sense into Digital Copyright, 85 N.C. L. Rey. 885 (2007).
