Letters can be works, privacy, property, cultural heritage; therefore, they have special legal status in copyright law. China’s copyright law does not give special provisions on letters, which belong to the category of literary works and the unpublished works. It is difficult to apply fair use doctrine on letters, and the conflict between copyright, the protection of personality interests of dead person,public knowledge acquisition and privacy rights is not easy to coordinate. In the process of the third revision of copyright law, we should learn from foreign legislation, treating letters as “special works”, and give special provisions on the right of publication of letters. It is good to coordinate the conflict of values.