# Ethics and legality of reporting Colin Powell's email contents **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [September 22, 2016, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ethics-and-legality-of-reporting-colin-powells-email-contents/766594 "2016-09-22T19:36:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2016, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ethics-and-legality-of-reporting-colin-powells-email-contents/766594/1 "2016-09-22T19:36:36Z")
May be more IMHO, but I’ll leave it to the mods. Questions about Powell and privacy: suppose Colin Powell’s emails had not been sent all over cyberspace by an anonymous foreign hacker but had just been emailed to NBC or CBS: would the networks be able to use them without his permission? Is the reason that they are able to reprint and broadcast them because they have already been compromised and made widely available? And does anybody else think that for the media to repeat them is unethical even if it is legal? ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2016, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ethics-and-legality-of-reporting-colin-powells-email-contents/766594/2 "2016-09-22T19:46:05Z")
Yes, they don’t need anyone’s permission to publish news. No, it doesn’t matter if they’re already widely available – in fact I’m sure NBC would have preferred an exclusive. No, it’s not unethical. Maybe it would be if there were private emails between Powell and friends/family, but certainly not regarding his duties for the government. ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2016, 11:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ethics-and-legality-of-reporting-colin-powells-email-contents/766594/3 "2016-09-22T23:57:32Z")
Why is it not a breach of Powell’s copyright to publish e-mails he wrote, without his permission? ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2016, 12:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ethics-and-legality-of-reporting-colin-powells-email-contents/766594/4 "2016-09-23T00:20:02Z")
If he was writing in the course of his government duties, I don’t think he owned any rights to those emails. I apologize. I should have made clear that ianal, and so should be taken with extra skepticism. ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2016, 12:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ethics-and-legality-of-reporting-colin-powells-email-contents/766594/5 "2016-09-23T00:45:08Z")
The emails I have seen published were after he left public service: e-mails to Hillary after she became SoS, e-nails to friends, commenting on Hillary’s use of a private server as SoS. So, not government e-mails. ---
**Author:** ![ThelmaLou](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thelmalou/32/390_2.png) [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2016, 1:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ethics-and-legality-of-reporting-colin-powells-email-contents/766594/6 "2016-09-23T01:02:30Z")
Our mothers used to say, _“Don’t say or write anything that you wouldn’t want to see on the front page of the New York Times.”_ That warning is literally true now.