On Thu, 10 May 2001, Randy Ryan wrote:
> That is really one of the reasons for having a co-owners, so that they can
> step in when needed.

Well, I don't think that was the intent of the person who sent the
original item.  I think his intent was:  who has legal rights to the email
of the deceased (the email originated by the deceased)?

That is how I viewed it in my first reply.  That reply did not deal
specifically with email, but pointed up the problem of assigning rights
to electronic property.  In the instance I cited the rights were assigned
to me by the sole legal heir, but I could not avail myself of those
rights due to lack of cooperation of those who had "physical" control of
the effects, and, well, I didn't want to make a stink about it.

As to legal heirs of email, that is, when I die, who has the rights to all
of my email (as if anyone cared, but who knows), my legal heirs have it.
Email is a mess, but here is how it works for mail (regular mail, letters,
you know, on paper?).

I write many letters to Denise.  Denise receives the letters and thereby
has ownership of the physical letters, but *not* the content, which is
intellectual property and remains mine.  I die.  Denise wants to publish
my letters.  She can't without the permission of my heirs (of which she is
not one) as she owns only the physical letters, not their content; my
heirs own the content.  The same applies if Denise never got the letters
(lost in the mail, stolen from her mailbox, whatever), or got them and
lost them, or sold them, or she dies and her heirs want to publish, or
whatever, doesn't matter;  ownership of the content (intellectual
property) resides with me and my heirs as long as copyright hasn't expired
(this is an original creation of mine and I retain copyright for my
lifetime plus 100 years). Denise, or whoever currently has ownership of
the physical letters, owns the physical letters, but *not* the content
(can't publish without permission), while I, or my heirs, assigns, etc.,
continue to own the content (can publish). If you don't believe me, just
check the legal squabbles over the publication of the letters of famous
deceased (and sometimes not deceased).

It becomes much more complex with email, particularly email sent to a
list, but it is what I apply for my lists;  the poster of each item
retains copyright to that portion of his item which is original, granting
fair use quoting within the list, any use outside the list requires the
permission of the author (you may not forward without permission).

A concrete example:

I extract everything from Eric Thomas in the LSTOWN-L archives and try to
publish it in a book titled _Eric to listowners: Explanations, Homilies
and Diatribes_ .  Will Eric let me get away with that? I doubt it.  His
lawyer(s) would likely have me shut down quicker'n I could spit, with good
reason, and he ain't even dead yet.

This, I think, is the sort of thing the original poster was addressing.

Douglas

you betcha this is copyrighted, even in the archives, it is copyrighted
and I own the copyright  Douglas