Who to Cc: Back?

What is the the proper E-mail Etiquette when forwarding business e-mails from a second party on a common subject -- to a third party? Do you Cc: the original party?

Whether it be a business or personal e-mail common courtesy would dictate you don't forward without the original sender's knowledge. That said, we all know people do this every day. Just hope it doesn't hit you in the back of the head one day. You do so to others; they do the same to you.

All e-mails are naturally copyright protected by the author. So in order to forward an e-mail sent to you to another person, you should get the writer's permission to do so first.

Cc'ing while doing so doesn't negate asking for permission. E-mails are sent and written to the party for which they were intended, not to be sent to others without their permission. By Cc'ing without asking you risk the Sender getting upset due to the possibility they didn't want the content shared. A "common subject" is subjective to each person's definition of what is common in their view.

I have an article on the Proper Way to Forward E-mails on my site that you might find helpful.