Who owns your e-mails?

My attention was drawn to this article today. Now here is a guy who hasn't thought things through properly. "He was keeping a journal of sorts to put together for future history," John Ellsworth told BBC News. "He wanted to make sure that his generation, as well as following generations, have actual words from somebody who was there." And yet if he knew his son was involved in such an important task you think the least he'd be able to do was not delete the emails he received, instead he is demanding Yahoo! release them on compassionate grounds. Why does Yahoo! have to be compassionate just because he couldn't be bothered to archive his own emails?