Copyright of messages sent to a Mailtalk group are retained by the poster and when you send a message to a Mailtalk group, you retain your copyright in that message. You also retain your moral right to be identified as the author of the work, and your moral right against derogatory treatment.

The extent to which your message is made available across the internet will depend on the level of access that has been set by the groupowner. You give Mailtalk permission to reproduce, deliver, distribute and archive your message as appropriate, and you agree that other Mailtalk users may read, save, download or print your message. Respect copyright when forwarding messages, if in doubt check with the author.

In Brief

• Copyright law stops other people from using and abusing your original work - this includes email messages
• All your email messages are copyrighted to you (or your employer) automatically, you do not have to register this copyright
• Mailtalk does not own the copyright of messages sent to its groups, and neither does the group administrator
• When you post to a public group you do not lose copyright, but your message may be archived, forwarded to other groups, or quoted by others
• Messages sent to a group should not be quoted out of contex, changed in any way, reworded or mis-attributed

Additional notes

Implied Licence - Sending a message to a public discussion group has been compared to sending a letter to the editor of a newsletter. This would be regarded as intended for publication (an implied licence) unless there was clear evidence to the contrary. When you send a message to a public discussion group, you should be aware that:

• Other members of the group may keep a copy of the message
• The message may be archived and be accessible via a website
• The message may be forwarded to other interested parties
• Parts of the message may be quoted in discussion. This is implicitly allowed as being reasonable use of a mailing group and to the benefit of all group members. It does not mean that you lose copyright

Moral Rights - When you send a message to a public discussion group, certain 'moral rights' apply. Although your message may be widely disseminated, you have a right to expect the following:

• The message is not changed or reworded if forwarded - messages sent to a closed mailing group or to an individual should never be forwarded without the author's permission
• Your message is not quoted out of context. - it is not acceptable to quote, or misquote, part of a message in such a way that it misleads people and damages the reputation of the original sender
• Attribution is given to the author - the name of the original sender should always be acknowledged. Any appended copyright notice should be respected

For more information about Copyright please visit the UK Copyright Licensing Agency website.