Discussion:
What is the name of your state? California
My question is with regard to an email.
If I write an email then does this email become my copyrighted property? Am I the only person who is able to say where and when and how that email is published?
Answer:
No and No. Once you send the e-mail you lose 'ownership' over it's contents or what happens to it after that.
Answer:
Are you absolutely sure about that? I've read that all written material is your actual property and therefore you can say where it can be published and where it cannot.
Therefore if you published an email on this website and if I copied it and put it on my website, then are you saying I am not breaking your copywrite?
As far as I know it , if you write something, private or not, this is your property and you are the only person who can say where it becomes published.
Answer:
Does it really matter?
If the email contained, say, a chapter of a book you are writing, then yeah, you would own the copyright to that chapter. But copyrights cover creativity, not nothing -- you can't write down on a piece of paper "My name is mud" and say that it is copyrighted. Writing something down DOES give the writer a copyright IF the material being written down is otherwise copyrightable subject matter.
So maybe, if your email is copyrightable subject matter, you would own the copyright. Most emails do not consist of copyrightable subject matter.
Why is it important to you to hold the copyright to an email you sent?