# are company emails protected by copyright? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 1, 2015, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-company-emails-protected-by-copyright/708702 "2015-01-01T19:30:23Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![dstarfire](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dstarfire/32/5762_2.png) [@dstarfire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dstarfire)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2015, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-company-emails-protected-by-copyright/708702/1 "2015-01-01T19:30:23Z")
**Background:** After Sony was hacked and a bunch of corporate email messages (among other things) were dumped to the internet, some guy in the UK decided to repost some of the more interesting messages on twitter. Sony’s UK branch demanded twitter take down the posts, claiming copyright violations. Twitter took down a few posts that contained\* snippets from screenplays/scripts. They refused to take down the rest. **Question:** Are a company’s internal communications actually subject to copyright protection? Or is this just a long shot by Sony? **Initial thoughts:** I know\*\* a creative work is protected by copyright from it’s completion (whether or not it’s registered with the copyright office). But are business emails really a “creative work”? Does the law (in the UK or US) actually limit copyright to creative/artistic works, or something similar? ---
**Author:** ![dofe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7ba0ec/32.png) [@dofe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dofe)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2015, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-company-emails-protected-by-copyright/708702/2 "2015-01-01T19:52:58Z")
For sake of accuracy, Sony’s attorney ([David Boies](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Boies), no legal lightweight) is not technically raising a copyright issue per se. From [the letter](https://s3.amazonaws.com/s3.documentcloud.org/documents/1385190/250802459-sony-letter-to-twitter.pdf): > [@](#): > > We understand that the Account Holder’s publication of this Stolen Information is (and any other account holder’s similar use would be) in violation of numerous provisions of Twitter’s Terms of Use, including the prohibitions against (i) publishing copyrighted materials and “other people’s private and confidential information…without their express authorization and permission,” and (ii) use of Twitter “for any unlawful purposes or in furtherance of illegal activities.” > > The possession, use, and publishing of the Stolen Information implicates numerous federal and California state laws, including, but not limited to, the Computer Fraud & Abuse Act (18 U.S.C. § 1030), the Copyright Act (17 U.S.C. §§ 501, et seq.), the California Comprehensive Computer Data Access & Fraud Act (Cal. Penal Code § 502), California’s Stolen Property Law (Cal. Penal Code § 496), the Uniform Trade Secrets Act (Cal. Civ. Code §§ 3426, et seq.), and the California Unfair Competition Law (Cal. Bus. & Prof. Code §§ 17200, et seq.), among others, especially when such actions are taken knowingly in furtherance of federal and state crimes committed by the perpetrators, including extortion. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2015, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-company-emails-protected-by-copyright/708702/3 "2015-01-01T19:52:52Z")
A creative work is anything you put into tangible form that contains original expression. That includes emails. And every post made here. Reprinting them without permission is a violation of copyright, so Sony can ask sites to take down copyrighted communications. Those sites could make the claim that printing them is fair use. What’s fair use? Anything a court says it is. As this won’t go to court, nobody can say. Everybody’s in the right here, except where everybody is in the wrong. I should add that UK law is not the same as U.S. law. The above pertains to U.S. law only. ---
**Author:** ![dofe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7ba0ec/32.png) [@dofe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dofe)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2015, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-company-emails-protected-by-copyright/708702/4 "2015-01-01T19:57:01Z")
Too late to edit, but my post should have said that Boies is not technically raising a copyright issue alone per se. ---
**Author:** ![dstarfire](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dstarfire/32/5762_2.png) [@dstarfire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dstarfire)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2015, 9:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-company-emails-protected-by-copyright/708702/5 "2015-01-01T21:01:18Z")
Good point, Dofe. I haven’t read the actual letter, so wasn’t aware he’d raised any other issues. I forgot to mention in my original post, but my understanding is of US copyright law which may vary from the UK’s, where the complaint (and the posts to twitter) are from. ---
**Author:** ![Ranger\_Jeff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranger_jeff/32/2065_2.png) [@Ranger\_Jeff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranger_Jeff)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2015, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-company-emails-protected-by-copyright/708702/6 "2015-01-01T21:24:13Z")
IANAL, and don’t know about copyright laws, but those emails are stolen communications and probably proprietary too, so I can’t see how it’s legal to distribute them. ---
**Author:** ![dstarfire](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dstarfire/32/5762_2.png) [@dstarfire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dstarfire)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2015, 6:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-company-emails-protected-by-copyright/708702/7 "2015-01-02T06:48:15Z")
> [@Ranger\_Jeff](#): > > IANAL, and don’t know about copyright laws, but those emails are stolen communications and probably proprietary too, so I can’t see how it’s legal to distribute them. The tweeter is reposting information that has already been published online, and is (afaik) still readily available to any member of the general public.