Re: Nathan vs Rubywand: Choose sides?

[supertimer@aol.com (Supertimer)]

CUTjefbla@bconnex.net (Jeff Blakeney) wrote:

>supertimer@aol.com (Supertimer) wrote:
>
>>When the descendants of Ben Franklin donated the letters that
>>Thomas Jefferson sent to him to the Smithsonian, did they secure
>>permission from the descendants of Jefferson?  These two are some
>>of America's (USA's) founders, for those in other countries....
>
>I can't say for sure if permission is explicitly required, but I'm
>pretty sure it is, but here are a few things to think about with
>respect to your example above.
>
>1) When they gave the letters they probably also gave explicit
>permission to use them as they saw fit.  Otherwise, what would be the
>point in giving them the letters.  Failing that, by giving them the
>letters, I believe that they also implicitly gave permission to use
>them as they saw fit.  Keep in mind that there is a definite
>difference between giving away an ancestors letters and e-mailing
>someone yourself.

Remember that Jefferson wrote these PERSONAL letters to
Franklin as a friend.  I don't think at the time either person
thought that it would end up in a national museum.  Franklin
probably just stuck it in his desk...

We are also talking about ancestors as in the father or at most
the grandfather.  These letters ended up in the Smithsonian
soon after it was founded if memory serves....

>2) Depending on how long the letters were lying around, the copyright
>was probably expired anyways.  Copyrights on such materials lasts for
>50 or 75 years after the person's death.  Therefore, the letters may
>not have been copyrighted anymore.

At that time, I think copyright was 20 years (it was extended
to 50 in the United States much later).  Then as now, a letter
once written and sent becomes the property of the recipient.
If I write a letter to you and physically place it in the post, the
letter becomes your property once you get it.

Now unless email is somehow different that real mail, Steve
has every right to post the letter.

How many times have you seen someone send a letter that
someone else sent them to a newspaper and getting it
published for one purpose or another?  What about when CNN
or MSNBC prints your emails on the air?  Do they email you
for explicit permission?

If email follows real mail in the legal sense, once you hit the
"send" button or execute the send command, the letter now
belongs to the recipient.

>3) Then there is the distinct possibly that copyright law didn't even
>exist when those letters were created so they wouldn't be copyrighted
>anyways.

In the United States, I am pretty sure copyright law did exist
in some form and in fact, the above mentioned Thomas
Jefferson (at one time President Jefferson) probably had a
hand in drafting the law.