On Mon, 27 Dec 2004 10:05:55 EST, Mary Landesman said: > Now, if there were reason to believe that a crime had been committed and > that evidence lies in the email, that's a different story. In such a case, I > believe the email should be turned over to the authorities. But absent legal > need, turning over email to a grieving parent/spouse/child is a dangerous > and undesirable precedent.
Amen. Absent a properly executed subpoena, Yahoo shouldn't be coughing up the data to anybody. IANAL, but the "No right of survivorship" would probably trump the executor's rights. But even there, the *right* thing for the executor is to have a judge issue a temporary restraining order, and hand Yahoo the TRO and say "sit on this account until a judge rules on who wins". It's amazing that nobody on *this* list has picked up on another thing that Yahoo has to protect against: Social engineering. Find a Yahoo userid that hasn't been used in a few days, and "notify" Yahoo that you're the next of kin and they just got killed in a car crash. Do you really *want* Yahoo to take your word for it? (Remember, although *this* case is high-profile, and the parents were probably on TV and all that, if I pick some random Joe Smith across town, and tell Yahoo that I'm Joe Smith Sr, why should they fall for it?)
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