Are Usenet postings and email messages copyrighted?
In almost all cases, yes. They meet the requirement of being original works of authorship fixed in a tangible medium of expression (see section 2.3). They haven’t been put in the public domain; generally, only an expiration of copyright or an unambiguous declaration by an author is sufficient to place a work into public domain. However, at least with Usenet postings, there are two doctrines which probably allow at least some copying: fair use (see sections 2.8 and 2.9) and implied license. Whether a particular use of a Usenet posting is a fair use is, as always, a very fact-specific determination. However, it’s probably safe to say that it’s a fair use if the use was not commercial in nature, the posting was not an artistic or dramatic work (e.g., it was the writer’s opinion, or a declaration of facts, and not something like a poem or short story), only as much of the posting was copied as was necessary (e.g., a short quotation for purposes of criticism and comment), and there was litt
