silly, yet disturbing

[mellowtron]

fluff news of the day - apparently, the family of a Marine killed in Iraq is petitioning Yahoo to get access to their son's email, citing it as an important record of his last words and thoughts.

the not-so-fluffy part is how they are claiming that this situation is *unique* without giving any real reason how it's unique or why they should have

Comments

thoughts on

[ylys]

I think there are some intellectual property issues here but I'm not up to researching them. I'd like the email given to the family, actually - if they're brave enough to ask, they deserve to know. And if they find out some things they weren't ready for, that's on them.

His death in Iraq isn't any more of an extenuating circumstance - shouldn't matter how he died. But since he was killed in combat, he now equals war hero, which means this case gets press.

I wouldn't want my folks reading my email either - but I can see them in the position of this Marine's parents.

And the privacy-of patrons issue is ludicrous. He could give a shit - he's deadIf Yahoo were refusing orders from the CIA to protect living people, I'd back them. If this soldier were involved in covert operations and the feds wanted access to his email... well, actually I think that's already happened, and Yahoo caved. (not to mention that if you're sending encrypted messages over a free email service, you maybe shouldn't be entrusted with anything important.) I don't