profiles of the deceased

Not really. If a member had one of those $500 lifetime deals, there is no autorenewal. There's no reason for c.c to contact them for an upgrade. So, the member is considered current even if he/she didn't log on for months.

My God, I don't care either way, but I am trying to do you a favor since you seem to care so much about it. Do you really think you're set with the first google hit? I think you are in denial. These things happen and blood relatives or designated trustees often gain some degree of access to dead people's accounts, especially on social sites. Here:

http://techland.time.com/2013/07/16/how-to-access-a-deceased-loved-ones-online-accounts/

http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2013/apr/12/google-inactive-account-manager-digital-death

https://support.google.com/mail/answer/14300?hl=en

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_and_the_internet

And i quote from the wikipedia article:

"Gmail and Hotmail allow the email accounts of the deceased to be accessed, provided certain requirements are met. Yahoo! Mail will not provide access, citing the No Right of Survivorship and Non-Transferability clause in the Yahoo! terms of service. In 2005 Yahoo! was ordered by the Probate Court of Oakland County, MI to release emails of deceased US Marine Justin Ellsworth to his father, John Ellsworth."

"Facebook's policy on death is to turn the deceased user's profile into a memorial, as a place where people can save and share their memories of those who've passed. [...] In order to memorialize deceased person's account, a special contact form must be filled out. In this contact from, a proof of death must be provided, such as an obituary or news article. Both family members and non-family members are allowed to submit this form."

"Upon request, Twitter can close accounts and provide archives of public Tweets for deceased users. Family members are required to submit a formal request to Twitter's Trust & Safety department. You must have a copy of the death certificate or they will not take action despite obituary articles and news clips."

"YouTube grants access to accounts of deceased persons under certain conditions."

So it seems Facebook is the toughest one in such cases, although this wasn't always the case.

fb sucks, overall. Ever try to contact them? You may never receive a response. But, they'll sell virtually all information you provide. 

Some of us are immortal 

citizenoftheworld, I never disputed that courts could force web services to hand over access to the relatives.

The question is whether you can, without going to a judge, log into a dead man's account, and your own post (#66) proves that no. Gmail, hotmail and youtube have "certain conditions" that are not specified, the only thing twitter provides that you could not get from creating another profile is closing the dead profile, facebooks signals the death but by no means gives login access.

In the current case of chess.com, there is someone login in some dead man's account. Not chess.com putting a "dead person" notice.

It's not chess.com giving access to the spouse.

It might be a password-cookie, it might be a "book of passwords in case I die", it might be a "remember me" login, it might even be a shared account.

I do not think the death was faked, but I am 99% sure chess.com did not actively gave access either.

The human form dies... but the soul lives on.

    To AlCvercik;  I completely agree with your post #67. Facebook is now in court TRYING to defend their policy of selling your info to advertisers. People are now getting customized marketing based upon their "likes". That's a lot more sleasy than hidding auto-renewal in the fine print. I think ALL web sites should have a spring cleaning, say, every 2-3 yrs. Otherwise they may all turn into obituary sites.

That guy looks like bobby fischer.

Did anyone catch that photo taken that looked exactly like a young Elvis?  Pretty spooky.

Have you meant this?

This isn't Elvis' photo, it is young Chet Baker's photo and the user abusing this photo was a cheater Roy Gates calling himself Gonnosuke.

I can't be sure, I think the photo that I mentioned was from Elvis' home state.  Is that where this guy is from?

Back from the dead!