Tuija Aalto’s book ”How to be Open” includes an interview with Jouko Jokinen, the editor-in-chief of Aamulehti. Jokinen states that “an e-mail is not protected by the secrecy of correspondence if it’s not considered an original work.” He’s using a term from European law, and this concept of secrecy came up in my recent training sessions. Writers expressed displeasure that their messages have been forwarded without permission. I opened a discussion on this issue last week on Twitter, and in the first reply received a link to Vesa Linja-aho’s blog post. Linja-aho wrote that a recipient is allowed to forward or publish an e-mail, as long as it’s not revealing company secrets or violating privacy. According to Linja-aho, the notion that you can forbid any republishing stems from people who misunderstand what secrecy of correspondence is meant to protect: Alan cannot read a message sent by Matt to Erin without permission, but Erin herself is free to do with the message whatever she wants—including sending it to Alan. IT-author Petteri Järvinen agrees and points out that copyright law prevents sharing of a message only if it meets the characteristics of an original work. Marko Forss of the Finnish police says you need to verify each time that the message you forward does not contain information about private life. Even on bulletin boards, according to Järvinen, it’s possible to republish without breaking the law. In an interview quoted in “How to be Open”, Jokinen explains that he changed his approach to e-mail when one of his messages was published without his permission. It’s good for all of us to keep in mind that somebody can lawfully publish our private emails.