Hello again, and thanks for all of the helpful replies. My understanding
of this is now as follows:
· My public authority holds letters, some being copies of letters
sent to a well known public figure, some being letters received from that
public figure.
· The author of a letter retains their ownership and copyright of the
content.
· The recipient of the letter owns the document, in the same way that
a person who buys a book owns the book, but not the copyright.
· Section 50 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act allows for
copyright to be suspended to allow the release of information under the
terms of another Act of Parliament.
· Notwithstanding the above, there is a clear Data Protection element
involved in this request, and it is my understanding that a letter sent by
a private individual to another private individual contains an implicit
understanding of confidentiality.
· Therefore, releasing the private correspondence of another person
may breech the terms of the Data Protection Act.
I have contacted the author of the original correspondence to see if they
have any objection to the disclosure of the exchanges (content is pretty
anodyne).
If the person refuses to allow their correspondence to be disclosed:
a) Am I allowed to release the letters that my public authority was the
author of, or would this indirectly violate the other person's DP rights in
the chain of correspondence?
b) Can the applicant request to see the correspndance that took place about
access to the correspondence?
I'm worried that I am going to worry about this all weekend.
Some interesting links regarding the ownership of letters / email:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/3204121.stm
http://www.duanemorris.com/articles/article1667.html
http://www.strom.com/pubwork/iwwoe94.html
While we're on this subject - a jolly Friday afternoon teaser:
A sculptor creates a work of art.
A photographer takes a picture of the sculpture and displays it in an
exhibition of their photographic artwork.
A visitor to the exhibition takes a photograph of the photograph, and puts
it in his own exhibition.
Who, if anyone, has had their intellectual property rights violated?
Cheers,
Graeme.
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