After Death, a Struggle for Their Digital Memories

Richard Linn, father of Marine Lance Cpl. Karl Linn, killed in Iraq, looks at his son's Web site. Mailbank.com refused to give information about the account. (Jay Paul For The Washington Post)

The family of Army Spec. Michael J. Smith had no more luck getting access to his Web page.

The singer from Media, Pa., who dropped out of high school to join a local heavy metal band, had been recording his thoughts in a blog for three years when he arrived in Iraq last fall with the 2nd Infantry Division. He died Jan. 11 when his vehicle was hit by a rocket-propelled grenade, and his father has a pending request to get access to both the public and private portions of his son's online journal on LiveJournal.com, where the 24-year-old infantryman wrote poetry about his experiences on Iraq, his love of music and life in general.

In one of his last entries, dated Dec. 31, Smith noted that he had had close calls with three roadside bombs, been in eight firefights and had mortars lobbed in his direction more times than he could count.

As for Iraqis, he said, "the people seem nice, some of the time. i've had lunch with one family, and i've detained another."

When news of his death spread through the blogging community, more than 700 people posted messages thanking Smith, who went by the online alias "wolfmoon98," for sharing his insights and for his service to the country.

Smith's father, James H. Smith, 63, who works for an electronics retailer, hasn't read the blog because he said it would be too painful at this time, but he's hoping to take possession of the postings for later.

"Maybe not right away, but someday I'd like a chance to read what he had to say," he said.

LiveJournal community site supervisor Jesse Proulx said that the company's policy is "to never transfer an account between individuals, regardless of the situation" but that it does offer families of deceased customers other options. The next of kin could request that the account be deleted or preserved to serve as a memorial where people can post their condolences and tributes.

"It's the most ideal solution for all involved -- our liability, the user's privacy and the next of kin's wishes," Proulx said.

Meanwhile, the family of Marine Lance Cpl. Justin M. Ellsworth, 20, who died on Nov. 13 in Iraq in the restive city of Fallujah, is continuing to fight Yahoo over its refusal to give them access to the Mount Pleasant, Mich., man's account. His father said he promised his son he'd make a scrapbook of e-mails sent to him for future generations, a scrapbook that would be incomplete without all the e-mails that Yahoo is holding.

The family hired a lawyer, who is talking to Yahoo about possible alternatives -- but time is running out. According to Yahoo's terms of service, the company deactivates accounts after 120 days if they haven't been used. If the issue isn't resolved by mid-March or sooner, the e-mails could disappear forever.

Staff researchers Julie Tate and Richard S. Drezen contributed to this report.