Who owns your emails after you die? Here is an interesting article from a U.S. Marine's Father's fight to get back his dead sons emails from Yahoo.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/4164669.stm

in my case it's whoever gets my pc as i'm running my own mail server.

shocked at yahoo, even if its their policy you think theyd make exception

Originally posted by NatalieSheff
shocked at yahoo, even if its their policy you think theyd make exception

Got to support yahoo on this one.

I have no deep dark secrets contained in my emails but still wouldn't want my mum and dad reading them. I don't want to go to my grave worying about what I may have said (Ole remembers the time he accidently emailed his dad telling him how cute he was :o ).

I can understand the parents wanting to see these emails, perhaps trying to get to know their son better or just to simply read his last thoughts. Its upsetting to think what they must be going through but even in death their son is entitled to privacy.

Have you ever sent an email you wouldn't want your parents to read?

.

Have you ever sent an email you wouldn't want your parents to read? [/B][/QUOTE]

Oh aye, and even more I wouldn't want the missus to read :heyhey: :heyhey: :heyhey:

The law on e-mails was originally like that on letters - you owned your own words.

However, by putting them through a service like Yahoo, and agreeing to their terms, you've actually entered in to a contract.

Seems that the issue is not so much 'who owns the e-mails' but 'Is this a fair contract that is bindng?' I think the contract is fair, and the user could have easily left a password in his other personal effects.

It's a tough one - tiems like this I wish I was a lawyer...they're the only folks who'll make money from this one.

Joe

Originally posted by owdlad
Who owns your emails after you die? Here is an interesting article from a U.S. Marine's Father's fight to get back his dead sons emails from Yahoo.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/4164669.stm


It should be mentioned that the article linked to above only applies to the USA yahoo.

This problem would not occur in this country (as stated in the article linked to above).

eMails in this country are covered by the same laws as snail mail (rights get transfered to the deceased's estate - which is [probably] why uk.yahoo.com has different T&Cs - again, stated in the article linked to above).


Originally posted by JoePritchard
The law on e-mails was originally like that on letters - you owned your own words.....Joe

For the time being, we still do!

Aaaaannnnnnndddd... Does it really matter who reads dead peoples email? I wouldn't care who read my email when I'm dead.

Maybe users should include a stipulation in thier wills;)....

Originally posted by sccsux
Maybe users should include a stipulation in thier wills;)....

Or maybe peoples wills should include their passwords if thats what they want - in the future maybe wills will just consist of a series of apparently random collections of 6-10 letters and numbers.

The odd thing about this is that it seems to revolve around the Yahoo terms of service - that accounts of the deceased cannot be transferred.

I mean - who really reads the T's and C's? Maybe the guy just assumed that electronic mail would be passed to next of kin just like the letters in his locker.