Re: Who Gets to See the E-mail of the Deceased?

Pat stated:

TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Ignoring for a minute those situations > where the computer belongs to the company and the worker _should be_ > attending to the business of his employer. In those cases I do agree > the computer's output should belong to the employer. I am thinking > now instead of those cases where one has an account with an ISP such > as Yahoo for example: If I am _renting_ the use of the computer then > the computers output should belong to me. Another example might be > I live on a farm and rent or lease a machine to plant my crops. Now > my crops grow and are harvested. Do the crops belong to you since I > rented the machinery from you to do my work? If I am employed on the > farm and work with your tools, then I suppose the crops are yours > also. But not if the machinery, etc is under my exclusive control for > some period of time. PAT]

I will try to address some of your more relevant points.

I am thinking now instead of those cases where one has an account with an ISP such as Yahoo for example: If I am _renting_ the use of the computer then the computers output should belong to me.

The issue here is the intellectual property. The output of the computer belongs to you. You are free to take it with you and do with it as your heart desires. The other side of the coin is the data you leave on the rented computer. It does not belong to you. It is the property of the machine owner. All those temporary files Microsoft creates and stashes where only the programmer knows are not yours once you leave the machine and return it to its owner.

A case > Another example might be I live on a farm and rent or lease a

machine to plant my crops. Now my crops grow and are harvested. Do > the crops belong to you since I rented the machinery from you to do > my work?

And the answer to this is if you left your crop in the machine, then yes, it is theirs.

[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: And of course, Lisa Hancock responded that the crops actually belong to the owner of the land. I was assuming I owned the land and had gone to the 'rent-a-tractor' place before starting my work. PAT]