Hacked e-mails: To publish, or not?

Hi folks:

Remember a few weeks ago when 4,000 hacked e-mails from climate scientists surfaced and were written about in the press? Well, the Columbia Journalism Review has a fascinating article on the legal issues arising from the incident:

http://tinyurl.com/yamahh5

There are privacy issues relating to the publication of material where the e-mailers have a reasonable expectation of privacy (e-mails sent from one individual to another). Issues also arise about the press's publication of material obtained illegally; case law in the United States holds that they're probably not liable. Elsewhere? I don't know; the e-mails were hacked from a university in England.

On the other hand, the people who wrote the e-mails own the copyright, and if the press reprinted the e-mails verbatim they're violating the copyright. And unlike the issue of publishing illegally obtained material, when something becomes fair game when somebody else has already publised it, no such immunity exists in copyright law; every person publishing copyrighted material without permission is, theoretically, liable. The CJR attempts to provide guidance for journalists on these difficult waters.