[Coco] Quoting private email

Steven Hirsch snhirsch at gmail.com
Thu Sep 26 08:05:07 EDT 2013


On Wed, 25 Sep 2013, Dennis Bathory-Kitsz wrote:

> Apparently the guy from EmbeddedSW found that his corporate email to a list 
> member about EMUFDD had been quoted on the CoCo list back in May 2012. I'm 
> guessing he self-googled and found the message in the archives. He sent a 
> badly spelled email asking the message thread be removed.

> Just so you know, copyright law DOES protect the content of private email. If 
> you want to pass on information from a private email -- even one from a 
> company -- please paraphrase it but don't quote it without permission. Also 
> remember that copyright covers the expression of an idea, but not the idea 
> itself.

> Let's not provoke any crazies out there, okay?

This guy certainly fits that bill and I doubt he needs any provoking to 
manifest such behavior.  He sent personal e-mail threatening me with legal 
action for disclosing the contents of a prior transmission that I was NOT 
THE RECIPIENT OF!  I did not appreciate it and told him so in rather 
explicit terms before adding his address to my killfile.

Someone should point him to a Wikipedia explanation of the "Streisand 
Effect".

If I were in your position I would simply ignore him.  The internet never 
forgets anything, so deleting it from your personally owned list archive 
is almost meaningless.  If he has any technical background (which I must 
assume he does) he knows that quite well.  There may even be a legal 
justification for not doing anything.  Much like putting a fence around 
Huntington Gorge could be deemed an admission that it poses a danger, it's 
very possible that taking steps to remove the thread could be imputed as 
recognition on your part that there was an infringement.  IANAL, but 
thought I'd get that out there.

Steve


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