Yahoo! hands over dead man's email

Soldier's parents inherit his inbox

By John Oates • Get more from this author

Posted in Music and Media, 25th April 2005 14:28 GMT

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Email provider Yahoo has complied with a court order to give a dead soldier's email account to his parents.

Lance Corporal Justin Ellsworth, a US Marine, was killed while working for the US army in Iraq. His parents asked Yahoo for access to his email account but the company turned them down, according to AP.

But on Wednesday of last week a judge in Oakland Co, Michigan ordered Yahoo to hand over access to the account. Yahoo did not fight the ruling but wanted legal clarification.

Last week the family received a CD of documents and is expecting more printouts this week. But the family complain they have only got emails received by Justin, not those he wrote.

The family told AP they wanted to make a scrapbook from Justin's emails because he told them how important they were to keep him going.

Justin's father, John Ellsworth, told Detroit radio he was glad he and Yahoo had reached agreement so quickly. The ruling puts Yahoo in technical breach of its own privacy guidelines.®