Who owns the e-mail interview?

Paul Bradshaw, writing for Poynter, has raised some great questions about interviews conducted by e-mail.

Bradshaw was interviewed by a reporter via e-mail. At the end of their exchange, Bradshaw asked the reporter if that person would mind if Bradshaw published the e-mail exchange to his blog as raw data.

The journalist minded, saying, eventually, that Bradshaw did not have permission to publish anything that the journalist had written, including e-mails about asking permission to publish the interview.

"So who owns the interview?" Bradshaw writes. "It's a curious question of an age in which the balance of power between interviewer and interviewee has shifted."

One person writes an e-mail, which he or she owns. The recipient writes a response, which that person owns, right? Well, then who owns the combined string of e-mails? Or do we follow the idea behind paper letters? You send a person a written letter and that letter becomes their property, including the ideas in it and republication rights.

The comments on Bradshaw's column open up a few more cans of worms.

One commenter, Alex Dering, notes that reporters area trained to identify themselves as reporters at the start of an interview so that the interviewee knows he's talking on the record. Bradshaw asked at the end of the interview whether he could publish. Essentially, the commenter says, Bradshaw was interviewed knowing he was talking to a reporter, but the reporter was not aware he or she was talking to a reporter who might publish the interview.

(Dering also takes a pretty sour position on the utility of blogs for driving readers to a journalist, but let's leave that aside.)

Several commenters point out that the reporter interviewing Bradshaw should have known she was talking to a reporter who might write about the interview. Others note that you can't have any expectation of privacy after you hit the "send" button, even if you put one of those silly privacy disclaimers at the end of your e-mails.

Steve Yelvington, whose opinions I respect more than most about the business of journalism, commented: "Just when I think I've seen the depths of journalistic control-freak arrogance, Paul, you stun me with a tale like this! Just when I think I've seen the depths of journalistic control-freak arrogance, Paul, you stun me with a tale like this!"

Finally, Steve Buttry wrote about the Bradshaw Exchange on his blog, saying: "Every journalist should have the experience of being written about. I hope Paul Bradshaw publishes his exchange with this reporter. I hope she realizes that she should publish the full exchange. Don’t put something in writing, especially in the digital age, that you’re not willing to see published."

(Image from gabriel on Flickr)

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