Friends Forwarding IMs

November 20, 2008 by Judith

I was recently asked:

“Is it against email etiquette rules to copy and paste a section of a IM (Instant Message) conversation you have with A to your best friend B? This is not public, nor does B mind. Is this not the same, or at least very similar to explaining the scenario to B?”

Well explaining a conversation you had with another to someone else could be considered gossiping, right? Same goes if you are forwarding another person’s written words or comments without their knowledge. It would be one thing if you asked A if you could share with B and they approved but quite another to intentionally share without their knowledge.

Forwarding of any content without the original author/creator/emailer/IMer’s explicit permission is not proper, nor is it legal. You state B wouldn’t mind… but what about A? If the conversation was with A, you should ask their permission to share their IMs. Did you ask A and did they say it was O.K.? Does A know exactly who you will be forwarding and what portion of their comments? Only forwarding portions opens up the door to misunderstandings or comments being taken out of context.

Without the other person’s permission (meaning you asked them specifically and told them exactly what you would be doing), you should not forward privately or publicly anything they have written in whole or in part whether it be an e-mail, instant message or Blog post. I have an entire article that covers Online Copyright issues that every onliner should make themselves familiar with:

Online Copyright Myths and Considerations

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Comments

2 Responses to “Friends Forwarding IMs”

on January 18th, 2007 5:56 am

Hey Judith,
Thanks for your insightful Comments on my blog today. I enjoyed them (and posted reply Comments to them).
I appreciated your invitation — this indeed is a cool blog. I expect to learn a lot in my perusals.
I would like to share with you, however, that I haven’t gotten into any trouble with my Internet activities (at least so far) — not necessarily because I have studied Internet Etiquette or have taken any in-service training on it. I just tend to do what my mother always said to me: treat others as you would like to be treated. That and some common decency goes a long way. (Yet I also know that sometimes decency isn’t that common.)
Congrats on a great blog, Judith!
Bill
on January 18th, 2007 9:24 pm

Thanks for stopping by Bill! You probably won’t get into any trouble online by following that simple advice! More folks should listen to their Mothers!

I also think that many onliners just do not realize the weight some of the words they choose to use and how they use them carry. We are now in an age where it behooves everyone to hone their writing skills — not just those of us who enjoy doing so!

Judith