Could This Be True?

[Guest Thunderbuns]

I usually listen to the Kim Komando (Your Digital Godess) radio show on Sat. afternoons. As it comes from the USA perhaps some of you do as well.

 

Today she was saying that if we were to read the fine print in the "Terms of Service" that are issued by our service providers, we would probably find that they own the copyright on EVERY PIECE OF

E-MAIL we send out. And that every e-mail is forever retrievable using an advanced Google search by anyone who is interested enough to try.

 

Could this really be true? How can they claim copyright of what we write when they are just the transporter? It's like saying the Post Office has the copyright on every piece of mail we send!

 

Anyone care to comment?

 

Thunderbuns

[Rick Munroe]

<--- Does that mean Hooboy owns my ass? (hey, I kind of like that concept)

[Guest Thunderbuns]

><--- Does that mean Hooboy owns my ass? (hey, I kind of like

>that concept)

 

No - if it's true it means your local internet connection company does!

 

Thunderbuns

[Huey]

>I usually listen to the Kim Komando (Your Digital Godess)

>radio show on Sat. afternoons. As it comes from the USA

>perhaps some of you do as well.

 

Yes, I listen when I can. She has a great show and a decent site located @ http://www.komando.com

>

>Today she was saying that if we were to read the fine print

>in the "Terms of Service" that are issued by our service

>providers, we would probably find that they own the

>copyright on EVERY PIECE OF

>E-MAIL we send out. And that every e-mail is forever

>retrievable using an advanced Google search by anyone who is

>interested enough to try.

>

I am not very concered about the copyright issue. Actually the author owns the copyright in the US unless they "sign" over the rights. Simply agreeing to TOS is not the same as assigning copyright.

 

I am somewhat concerned about the Google search you mentioned:( I know that certain information can be retrieved using a search engine. I kind of doubt that email can be found via Google.

 

I missed this weeks show so I am not certain of what she actually said. Sometimes it repeats on Sunday's so I will try to catch it then.

-----------

WAR IS OVER

if you want it

GIVE PEACE A CHANCE

[guyinsf]

Unless there's a hidden area of google to search emails, this doesn't make sense. Somehow I don't think there's a hidden area of google for only certain people to search emails.

 

Try it for yourself. Search for a recent email you sent or received (with words unusual enough that there won't be many or any other hits if google actually does find anything). When I did this (in each category available - web, groups, images, directory), I didn't find any of the emails I sent or received in the past week about something obscure.

[CT Dick]

Try entering your email address on Google - zilch.

 

Dick

[Guest NakedTony]

Love her show and I usually trust what she says. Not sure, however, about the copyright issue.

 

I do know you can access "underground" areas on the internet using Google. This is typically done for getting things such as product keys, prirated software, etc. You can usually find those areas by beginning your search string with $. For example:

 

$productkey

 

It wouldn't surprise me that there are other, similar "backdoor" methods to retrieving e-mails from your ISP.

[+ deej]

I suspect she was talking about posts to newsgroups and message boards, not private e-mail.

 

Your EMPLOYER might (many do) claim copyright (as well as responsibility) for e-mail you may write on their system. They also have the legal right to read any e-mail you may write IF THEY HAVE A STATED POLICY IN PLACE. But they must tell you before they can do it legally.

 

On Compuserve forums, Compuserve retains a "compilation copyright" over publicly posted messages. They're pretty liberal about granting use for legitimate reasons, but their TOS does specifically state the restriction.

 

You'll notice that THIS SITE AND ITS CONTENTS are copyrighted by HooBoy. That includes the contents of the Message Center, much like Compuserve's "compilation copyright". Your words are your words, but taken in the context of the larger discussion (or, more likely, shouting match x( ) Hoo owns it.

 

Any ISP providing the contents of private e-mail, though, would be so open to legal action and negative publicity it would be suicide. Look at how the press goes into a feeding frenzy every time a security breach happens at hotmail.com. It isn't because they like to bash Microsoft (although they do). It's because of the privacy violation.