Transfer of a work by e-mail: copyright aspect

E-mail gives the opportunity to send a work of science, literature and art to one or more addressees. Russian copyright law does not allow us to make an unambiguous conclusion about the legitimacy of such use of a work. Purpose: to determine the legal regime of the transfer of works protected by copyright through e-mail. Methods: method of formal logic, systematic structural and formal dogmatic methods are used in the analysis. The article presents two approaches to the problem under consideration. Article 1270 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation is devoted to the contents of the exclusive copyright. This article establishes an open list of methods to use a work. Accordingly, we can make a logically correct, but legally dubious conclusion that any emailing of a work is illegal. This logic is based on the questionable legal technique of art. 1270 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation. The author of the paper believes that the second approach is correct. According to this approach the content of exclusive copyright should be limited to the methods to use a work that are specified in art. 1270. Emailing of a work includes two legally significant actions with such a work: 1) the creation of an electronic copy of a work; 2) sending this copy via the information and telecommunications network as an electronic message to a specific address. The first action is the reproduction of a work. The second action is the communication to the public. The transfer of a work by e-mail is the communication to the public if access to such a work can be obtained by a significant number of persons who do not belong to the usual family circle.