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TAMPA - The dead don't talk. But they can send e-mail.
Subscribers to www.MyLastEmail.com a Tampa Web site launched last week, can compose farewell e-mails to family or friends - and have the notes delivered after they die.
Though not the first of its type, the service is a great way to say goodbye to a spouse or patch things up with an estranged son, says co-owner Karen Peach.
"I'm not expecting to "go' any time soon," says a customer testimonial on the Web site, "but I've left "mylastemails,' one each for Jessie and Tom, so that if the unthinkable does happen, it's all down in writing how much I love them."
Death is a cottage industry on the Internet. For $195, subscribers to Legacy.com can post a loved one's biography, mementos and photo for public viewing. Obits.com charges $30 to post an obituary online for three months.
But while many Web sites cater to survivors, MyLastEmail serves the deceased. Customers can write e-mails for up to five people. After receiving proof that the subscriber has died - in the form of a Web site registration form and death certificate, both provided by a relative or trustee - the site will forward the e-mails to their intended recipients.
There is no guarantee the e-mails won't be mistaken for spam. A three-year subscription costs $9.99.
"That's probably a beer-and-a-half at Raymond James Stadium," said Tampa lawyer Richard Jacobson. His law firm, Fowler White Boggs Banker, is MyLastEmail's general counsel.
Co-owner Peach, whose British company, Centrical Solutions, created the Web site with software developer Layton Technology of Tampa, declined to say how many customers MyLastEmail had signed up so far. She said more are expected after the partnership conducts an upcoming publicity blitz in the United Kingdom.
Because the Web site promises not to review the e-mails, there is no way to assess their content. Peach predicted "99.9 percent" of subscribers would use the site for benign purposes but said it was possible someone would use it to harass a former boss or ex-wife. "Any service is open to abuse," she said.
The opportunities for postmortem revelation, or mischief, seem limitless. Woodward and Bernstein could finally give up the name of "Deep Throat." Carly Simon could reveal the inspiration for the song You're So Vain. An online disclaimer at MyLastEmail says subscribers must not use it to transmit text that is "harassing, abusive, tortuous, defamatory, threatening, harmful, abusive, invasive of another's privacy, vulgar, obscene or otherwise objectionable."
In the short time it has existed, MyLastEmail has already begun to evolve. Peach said she is considering a request by several subscribers that their e-mails be triggered if their account remains dormant for a specified period, such as six months.
She and her partners are also preparing for the site's own death.
Under a deal being negotiated with a Tampa Bay area accounting firm, MyLastEmail would regularly set aside a portion of its revenues in an escrow account. If the Web site were to go out of business, the accounting firm would use the cash to hire another Internet company to fulfill the remaining portion of three-year subscriptions.
Anyone lucky enough to survive beyond that expiration date would be left to their own devices. That still would be more than subscribers to FinalThoughts.com got after the Los Angeles Web site disappeared.
"When we realized that we needed to close down, we gave everyone 30 days' notice to go in and print their messages," FinalThoughts.com founder Todd Michael Krim said. "We didn't want people to be left in the lurch."
- Times researcher Kitty Bennett contributed to this report. Scott Barancik can be reached at barancik@sptimes.com or 727 893-8751.