The team behind a website that republishes memorials for thousands of Canadian families could be facing legal action from those who don’t want their loved ones exploited for personal profit.
Afterlife has been drawing a lot of attention because of its business model where it reposts information about the deceased relatives of thousands of families across the country without getting permission first.
The site says it has over one million obituaries on its website from all over North America, but many of the people that CTV Calgary spoke to say that that information was obtained without their knowledge.
Organizers say the online postings are free of charge, but it offers people to send flowers to a family or buy them a memorial item like a digital candle. The money from those purchases is then collected by the website.
Many people say the tactics used by Afterlife are infuriating because the company is using their loved ones to make money and the information they share is often wrong.
“It’s a violation and it’s capitalizing on my pain and my family’s pain,” says Lea Stevenson, a woman who found her brother’s obituary on the site. “It’s wrong on so many levels, it’s hard to describe.”
Sandra Wilson found her daughter’s posting on the site too and says it’s just brought her more pain.
“It was like getting hit in the stomach all over again and brings back the pain. It was horrible. To me, it was trolling and stealing information they shouldn’t have. They had no right to post that.”
A lawyer in St. John’s is now moving ahead with a class-action lawsuit against Afterlife, accusing the site’s owners of violating copyright laws by reposting obituaries without permission.
Afterlife would not comment on the pending legal action but said that anyone who doesn’t want their loved one’s obituary on their server simply needs to ask.
(With files from Chris Epp)
