I asked a friend of mine who specializes in intellectual property law
regarding the legal issues of forwarding email to this listserv. I thought
his answer was interesting, and that people might want to read it.

-Heidi

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Your question asks about the legal claims that might be made by the original
author of the email/letter.  In short, it depends somewhat on the content of
the letter, but the author probably would not have any invasion of privacy
claim against the person who forwarded the letter to the listserv, because
the author has no reasonable expectation of privacy.

On the other hand, the author's letter is the subject of copyright
protection.  Assuming that the letter has enough original expression (i.e.,
the letter consists of more than just a word or two, and doesn't reproduce
someone else's work), the author has the exclusive right to reproduce,
modify, publicly display and perform the work.  Thus, the author may assert
a claim of copyright infringement against the recipient/copier of the letter
because the recipient reproduced the letter without the author's permission.

Note that the recipient/copier of the letter could claim that the author
granted an implied license to reproduce the letter, but the merits of such a
claim would depend on the context.  For example, if the author forwarded the
letter to the recipient with the knowledge that the letter would be
forwarded to the listserv, then a court might find that the author granted a
license to the recipient to reproduce the letter.

Let me know if that answers your question.