What is Hatch's Hit List? Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT) has introduced the Inducing Infringement of Copyrights Act (IICA, née INDUCE Act) in the Senate. The bill would make it illegal to "intentionally induce" copyright infringement, but is worded so broadly that it would have all sorts of unintended consequences, one of which is to severely limit, cripple or kill innovation in many different fields. Hatch's Hit List is a daily exploration of some of the technologies and fields that the bill would likely affect. See also, Introducing Hatch's Hit List and the Hatch's Hit List Archives. Send list suggestions to ernest.miller 8T aya.yale.edu.

Today on Hatch's Hit List: Email Forward Function

So there I was, innocently sending and receiving email back in 1975. Then, one day, there is this program available called "MSG" that has a new function called "forward." Using that function you can take an incoming email message and easily copy the whole thing to send to someone else.

What was John Vittal thinking?

Clearly, the "forward" function he added had virtually no other purpose than copyright infringement. With a single keypress, one can violate both the exclusive right of reproduction and distribution. Some people don't mind this infringement, but many others have been quite upset that "private" (and copyrighted) emails have been indiscriminately forwarded. Without the "forward" function, which makes such infringement so easy, it is likely much of this infringement would not have occurred. If people had to laboriously re-type messages in order to send them to someone else, many people would not do so.

Furthermore, the "forward" function sits there at the top of the email screen begging to be used. I don't see how people can resist its allure. Indeed, my inbox today is full of forwarded emails.

Even worse is that there is no warning. When one chooses to use the "forward" function, there should at least be a copyright infringement warning dialog: "Forwarding email may be an infringement of copyright. Proceed? (Y/N)" Without such a dialog, there will be many innocent infringers, who might not realize that forwarding email can be a violation of copyright. Think of the children turned into criminals by this insidious functionality!

Want to know more about the INDUCE Act?
Please see LawMeme's well-organized index to everything I've written on the topic, including Hatch's Hit List: The LawMeme Reader's Guide to Ernie Miller's Guide to the INDUCE Act.