Who Owns a Decedent's E-Mails: Inheritable Probate
\\server05\productn\N\NYL\10-2\NYL201.txt unknown Seq: 1 3-OCT-07 14:08 WHO OWNS A DECEDENT’S E-MAILS: INHERITABLE PROBATE ASSETS OR PROPERTY OF THE NETWORK? Jonathan J. Darrow* and Gerald R. Ferrera** “E-mail is ‘comparable in principle to sending a first class letter . .’.” —People v. Lipsitz1 I. INTRODUCTION In early 2005, military dad John Ellsworth made national news through his seemingly innocuous request to be allowed access to his deceased son’s e-mail account.2 His twenty-year-old marine son, Jus- tin, was killed in Fallujah on November 13, 2004, by a roadside bomb.3 Mr. Ellsworth wanted to collect e-mails that his son wrote and received while in Iraq to create a memorial in his son’s honor.4 Were his e-mails similar to “sending a first-class letter,” with all of the at- tendant implications for ownership and inheritability, or is the com- parison mentioned in Lipsitz inaccurate? Yahoo!, Justin’s e-mail service provider, complied with Mr. Ells- worth’s request, but only after receiving an order from a Michigan probate court.5 Yahoo! stated that, in the absence of a court order, * Assistant Professor of Business Law, Plymouth State University; Duke Univer- sity (J.D.), Boston College (M.B.A.), Cornell University (B.S.) ** Gregory H. Adamian Professor of Law, Bentley College; Executive Director, Bentley Global CyberLaw Center; New England School of Law (J.D.), Bentley Col- lege (M.S. Taxation), Boston College (B.S.) 1. People v. Lipsitz, 663 N.Y.S.2d 468, 473 (Sup.
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