Dead Marine's Kin Plead for E-mail

Fire Fly · Post by **Fire Fly** » 2004-12-21 11:17am

http://www.cnn.com/2004/TECH/internet/12/21/soldier.email.ap/index.html[CNN

Dead Marine's kin plead for e-mail

Tuesday, December 21, 2004 Posted: 11:01 AM EST (1601 GMT)

WIXOM, Michigan (AP) -- The family of a Marine killed in Iraq is pleading with Internet giant Yahoo! for access to his e-mail account, which the company says is off-limits under its privacy policy.

Lance Cpl. Justin M. Ellsworth, 20, was killed by a roadside bomb on November 13 during a foot patrol in Al Anbar province. The family wants the complete e-mail file that Justin maintained, including notes to and from others.

"I want to be able to remember him in his words. I know he thought he was doing what he needed to do. I want to have that for the future," said John Ellsworth, Justin's father. "It's the last thing I have of my son."

But without the account's password, the request has been repeatedly denied. In addition, Yahoo! policy calls for erasing all accounts that are inactive for 90 days. Yahoo! also maintains that all users agree at sign-up that rights to a member's ID or contents within an account terminate upon death.

"While we sympathize with any grieving family, Yahoo! accounts and any contents therein are nontransferable" even after death, said Karen Mahon, a Yahoo! spokeswoman.

I just found this story a little....callous not to share. From my point of view, I don't see why Yahoo shouldn't. I mean, if you can do it with money, I don't really see why you can't do it with emails. When my grandmother past away, she left some money in a bank account, not much, just around $400, but she didn't have a joint name with my grandfather nor did she leave a will. But we were able to file out some forms, thanks to the help of the county clerk and were able to retrieve what little money there was.

In conclusion, I don't personally see what's the big deal with not giving the family the soldier's emails. Its akin to the soldier having a bunch of letters on him at the time of his death and the family pleading to have those letters returned to them but the army refusing, imo. That's my take.

Stravo · Post by **Stravo** » 2004-12-21 11:39am

I wonder though...I certainly wouldn't want my family having access to my email account. Do they really need to know about my email correspondence with a cross dresser in Ohio or a bestilaity fetishist in Denver? There are some things that parents should not be exposed to about their child.

CmdrWilkens · Post by **CmdrWilkens** » 2004-12-21 11:43am

Honestly I'm with Stravo here. If you want someone to be able to access your e-mail then you should leave your passwords. If you don't well then maybe you were engaging in things you don't want your parents to know about. Me personally I wrote out a last testament as soon as I moved into Iraq itself and left all my passwords for my family so they could access and clear out everything.

Col. Crackpot · Post by **Col. Crackpot** » 2004-12-21 11:45am

Stravo wrote:I wonder though...I certainly wouldn't want my family having access to my email account. Do they really need to know about my email correspondence with a cross dresser in Ohio or a bestilaity fetishist in Denver? There are some things that parents should not be exposed to about their child.

agreed. As unpopular as it may be to the family Yahoo is correct here. Also, from what i understand (you'd have a better grasp on this than i would Stravo) but to release the account would be a MAJOR breach of contract by Yahoo and could open them up to litigation by those who may have sent emails to the deceased.

Frank Hipper · Post by **Frank Hipper** » 2004-12-21 12:18pm

I have to support Yahoo in this, too. I die, no one gets access to my screenames. Period.

And I have to support Stravo in his E-mail correspondance with the margins of society, too. Keep reaching for that rainbow!