Can I quote you on that?

April 5, 2007 11:01 AM

Can I quote an email on my website if the email is about the site itself?

A similar question was asked recently, but it was quite vague, so I'd like to know details specific to my situation.

This is not personal correspondence that I want to post online. Rather, I run a website. If someone contacts me via the site about the content of the site, is there a reasonable expectation that I can use the contents of their email on that site, or do I need to explicitly ask permission? Does it matter if I use the quote for promotion (for instance, the way Go Fug Yourself quotes reader emails on their left sidebar)? And do the rules change if I obscure the identity of the sender?

A journalist acquaintance has an opt-out message in her signature--stating contact with her via her work email address is on the record, unless you specify otherwise--and I'm thinking of adding something similar to my own email. Thoughts on this?

I'm interested in both legal and ethical sides of this issue. Thanks!

posted by serialcomma to Computers & Internet (6 answers total)

A journalist acquaintance has an opt-out message in her signature--stating contact with her via her work email address is on the record, unless you specify otherwise--and I'm thinking of adding something similar to my own email. Thoughts on this?

All email footer 'contractese' is completely worthless. It's a waste of space and make the sender look like a fool. Don't do it.
posted by unixrat at 11:41 AM on April 5, 2007

The best approach would be to state above the email submission form on your site (not below, not in a tiny or lighter font, not in a pop-up or anything else that's not universally accessible) how you plan to use emails submitted and whether/to what extent you'll anonymize them.
posted by allterrainbrain at 11:50 AM on April 5, 2007

Legally (IANAL): their email is copyrighted by them. "Reasonable expectation" is probably not relevant, as reasonable expectation is not a factor that is taking into account in determining whether copyright was infringed. If you want to be absolutely sure you're legally safe, get their permission. If not, you're probably OK quoting just a sentence or two, and if it comes down to it you can claim it's fair use - but be forewarned that fair use is a very gray area, and there are no guarantees as to what a judge will or will not agree is fair use. You can read about the four factors that the law says judges should take into account in determining whether a given usage is fair or not, but there's no magic formula where you can plug in numbers from "Well, I used X words out of a Y-word message, and it's a [commercial|non-commercial] [educational|non-educational] use, etc." and get a definitive answer as to whether the use is fair or not. Obscuring the identity of the sender probably doesn't make much difference.

Ethically: get permission.
posted by DevilsAdvocate at 12:01 PM on April 5, 2007

If you have a contact form, you might want to consider an opt-out checkbox (or opt-in) giving you permission to quote part or all of the correspondence on your site.
posted by boreddusty at 12:47 PM on April 5, 2007

I do it all the time. The basic model is "letters to the editor", and my "contact" page makes clear that letters which are relevant to my blog subject may be posted if I think they're of interest to my other readers.

I have a strict set of rules about attribution: if the letter writer has a web site and I know what it is, I include a link to their web site as part of the attribution. If they do not, I identify them by first name only, to permit them "plausible deniability". If the letter writer specifically mentions that they don't want the letter used, I don't use it. If they say I can use the letter but they don't want attribution, I will attribute it to "a reader".

I've been following those rules for six years now, and I think in that entire time there have only been one or two times that anyone's complained about it. In those cases I changed the attribution as soon thereafter as I was able to in order to comply with their wishes.
posted by Steven C. Den Beste at 2:21 PM on April 5, 2007 [1 favorite]

As far as the ethics go, I'd say that unless you have some notice somewhere on your website (like "Here's my email address: _____. If you email me about the site, I may choose to post your message unless you tell me not to") it would be safer not to assume anything. Just send the person an email saying, "is it OK if I post your email on my site? If I do, would you like it to be attributed to you or kept anonymous?" You have nothing to lose by doing so---at least, nothing to lose if indeed the person is OK with the idea of being quoted. And if the person isn't OK with being quoted, you shouldn't post it, anyway.
posted by goingonit at 3:58 PM on April 5, 2007