I have been asked twice recently about the email etiquette of editing someone else’s message, then sending it out as one’s own.
The question is the same to me whether the medium is a memo, a letter, a report, an email message, or any kind of writing. Sometimes writers produce documents for other people, who present the work as their own. Sometimes writers contribute to a team, and the team’s written output is not linked to any particular individuals. In both those situations, the writers do not get recognition for their writing, and they don’t expect to.
But stealing is stealing. When a writer sends a message to a coworker, who then sends that message out–edited or not–as his or her own, without prior agreement, that is stealing another’s work.
Such is my view. What do you think?