a true and amazing email love story
 

As I was putting together a computer from old parts, I found a hard
drive that someone didn't erase. It was full of some guys emails. I
felt a bit wrong reading them but then I thought they are truthful, romantic
and touching and I find them quite funny. It's a real love story unfolding
before your eyes.

They are from 1999 and there are pretty amazing. I became addicted to
reading these and I thought I should share them at bored olives.

Do you think it is wrong to publish these emails online, even though
how old they are? I have changed the people's names and that's all. Please
give a few emails a read before you respond.

I will not read the emails. I'm not into reading what other people probably wouldn't want me to read, no matter how old. You should take them down and keep them to yourself. Public posting of private material never leads to good things.

Am I falling for a troll? Seems suspicious. Or I'm paranoid.

I won't, either.

...even though wire-tapping's nothing.

This reminds me of the box of love letters that my sister found hidden behind the rafters in the garage. It was from the 1920s. She did some searching and was able to find out whose they were. She found an old widow - the husband had just passed away the previous year. The ailing woman thought those letters were lost forever. She was touched that someone would return them to her.

Granted, your story is of a recent history rather than an old one. But it's the same idea. What if there is something on that hard drive that is precious, that they have lost? Sure, it may have been backed up at the time, but maybe that data was lost or corrupted in a more recent upgrade.

Without the consent of the person who wrote them, it's pretty messed up to share such things. Assuming that you forgot in the first place, you've probably read enough files on the hard drive to figure out whose it was. The right thing to do would be to return the files to the person who lost them. Keeping them to yourself is selfish. Posting them without consent is reprehensible.

I think there might be legal consequences of publishing someone's private correspondence without their consent. If you aren't the sender or the receiver, I think there are issues with publication—that is, unless it's been 50 to 100+ years since the death of the writer, depending on the country.

I wouldn't publish them without consent. It's good to see you are a romantic at heart, but be careful. The heart is very private - looking inside someone's is invasive. Holding the door open so the world can see inside is immoral.

I agree. And if that were my hard-drive and my letters and I found they were publish without my permission, I'd be livid.

What you think is "romantic", "touching" and "funny", the writer(s) may find embarrassing.

If they are truly interesting and ANONYMOUS that's one thing.
If their friends or family could identify the parties involved from the text that's another thing.

Poetry is different from personal details.

I agree, with one caveat, when in doubt DON'T post.

err.. i dont think he's listened to any advice here.. he's posted over 60 emails so far..and counting.

i did read a few emails i must admit and it is quite a tale. just saying.

I would love for a chance to read them. If they are on a hard drive that is now technically yours, I really don't see too much problem with you accessing them as long as you don't expose his identity. Perhaps you could email the guy and ask to post clips from them?

I'm not sure what the rights are to using such material as posted content. I'm going to have to ask a colleague for his legal opinion.

I'm going to go the tact that it's "found", depending on how the person got the hard drive. Did he buy it at a yard sale? Did he find it on the street with the trash?

I know that some people have used found items as art and music pieces with no litigation repercussions ala The Trachtenburg Family Slideshow Players, who would buy slideshow carousels and slides from yard sales, write stories to go with the slides and music to the stories.

re: the letters, well this is why I have kept all my hard drives since the mid-90s. I don't trust wiping them and tossing them out. They don't take up a lot of space and I know they are all together in a box in my closet.

Where? I only see the one post here and no blog posts.

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_vyAoR1jlf3...miley+%3DD.png
The spam is strong in this one.

(OP, not Ring. Duh.)

Awww, our anti-spam stuff worked and kept this out. How nice.

ah, well I'm so keen on learning about rights these days.

Anyways, he'll not be able to do that for much longer as I registered him as a known forum spammer.

jazz ive got the website if you're interested, but i wont paste it in here... i can PM it if you like

was looking into this guy as a spammer and was doing my due diligence when i came upon his site.

i would also love for a chance to read them.

:)

it sounds lovely and true stories tend to apeal to me.

regarding sharing them, i think it will be okay. like the original poster says, they will change the names so how's anyone gonna know where they came from.

hope i can find them and have a chance to read

:)

He posts the supposedly real names in the supposedly real e-mails.
He may have written them himself.

ring, he supposedly changes the names.

whether or not the emails are the real mcCoy is something else, but his writing style as opposed to those in the email differ. so it may be true.

in any case, its an entertaining read.

where are they located?

i'd hate to miss something like this.

Bored Olives He wrote the name of the site in the 1st post so.. 70 emails there

however he posted the 1st one back in April, this post showed up in August, which leads me to believe this is just an elaborate advertising ruse for his blogspot.

I'm going to read anyways just because I'm a sucker for a good advertising method.