Tribute Technology Expert Sheds Light on Obituary Piracy Epidemic
Tribute Technology’s Chief Customer Officer Courtney Gould Miller was recently asked to speak about the challenges for funeral homes amidst rising obituary piracy and aggregator websites for the tech publication, The Verge.
Courtney has dealt with obituary piracy in her personal life and knows how devastating it can be for families. One of her family members was killed in a car crash when his family’s vehicle was hit by a driver who was under the influence.
“When searching for his obituary, I first came across YouTube links that leveraged his name and death just to get traffic to their YouTube and generate ad revenue. I hope our profession can come together to find solutions to stop this abuse of deceased names and likeness,” says Courtney.
The Verge article profiles a man named Brian who discovered obituary pirates were erroneously reporting that he and his ex-wife died together.
“[The obituaries] had this real-world impact where at least four people that I know of called [our] mutual friends, and thought that I had died with her, like we had a suicide pact or something,” he said in the article. “It caused extra distress to some of my friends, and that made me really angry.”
“Funeral homes come to us at MKJ Marketing and Tribute Technology all the time asking what can be done to stop obituary scraping and outrank aggregator websites. This is a challenge we take seriously, and we are actively working on this on behalf of our customers. One of the ways we are doing this is through a new label of ‘Official Obituary’ on the obituary page. I am pleased that The Verge is highlighting this important issue so more families will be aware and work with their local funeral home to share the Official Obituary,” says Courtney.
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