Law and morality: remembering the deceased and the violation of personal rights

From a legal perspective, the issue of publishing such content is not clear, but there are regulations that may apply.

A deceased person no longer possesses their personal rights – defamation or invasion of privacy formally applies to living persons. However, many legal systems (including Poland) recognize that the cult of memory of a deceased person is a personal right of their loved ones . In other words, the deceased's loved ones have the right to preserve their honor and undisturbed memory. If someone commits an act that insults the deceased or distorts their image in public memory , the family may seek legal protection, citing a violation of their own personal rights – that is, the right to a true, unblemished memory of the deceased.

Can an EVP recording violate such a right? Potentially, yes, especially if it contains content that defames the deceased or attributes scandalous statements to them that could degrade them in the public eye. For example, if a YouTuber claims in their video that "the spirit of deceased celebrity X accuses person Y of causing his death," they not only create a sensation but also publicly accuse someone of guilt based on fictitious (because unverifiable) statements.

This was the case when YouTuber ImJayStation claimed that during a session with the ghost of rapper Mac Miller , he received a message that the musician's ex-girlfriend (Ariana Grande) contributed to his drug overdose. This is a very serious accusation that, although technically made by a "ghost," can have a real impact on the reputation of the living person and the memory of the deceased.

This type of action borders on slander and violation of the personal rights of both the deceased (by suggesting they blame someone for their death) and the accused person. If similar statements had been made in a traditional medium, they would certainly have been grounds for a lawsuit. However, in the world of paranormal recordings published online, this is difficult to enforce – the creator can always defend themselves by claiming it's "just an experiment" or "a form of entertainment." Nevertheless, such practices are morally objectionable, as they exploit someone's tragic fate to fabricate sensational narratives

Another issue is the right to privacy and the protection of one's image after death . While death terminates a person's personal privacy rights, the family often feels obligated to protect the deceased's reputation. Recordings of alleged voices that imitate someone's personality can be perceived as an invasion of the sphere the deceased considered private during life, especially when they touch on sensitive topics—the circumstances of death, personal life, etc. If the "ghost" reveals any intimate details in the recording (obviously provided by the creator), this is tantamount to publicly digging into someone else's affairs without prior consent.

Abusing the memory of a deceased person can therefore take the form of quasi-defamation or desecration of their symbolic peace . In extreme cases, one could even consider offending religious feelings—for example, when someone stages the "voice of the deceased" in a mocking or blasphemous manner (although this is quite hypothetical and difficult to categorize).

In practice, however, there are no clear regulations directly prohibiting the publication of alleged messages from the deceased. Unless the memory is insulted (e.g., through vulgar expressions or blatant lies about the deceased), sanctions are unlikely. Therefore, much in this matter is left to the conscience of the content creators and the judgment of public opinion—that is, a moral, not legal, sphere.

Morally, many people—especially those close to the victims—view such action as deeply inappropriate . There's a strong cultural belief that the dead deserve peace and respect , and using their name or image for online "happenings" crosses the line of decency. It's like "dancing on someone's grave" —even if the law doesn't explicitly prohibit it, most of us instinctively feel it's inappropriate.

After the tragic death of Iryna Zarucka, the internet was flooded with recordings of her alleged messages from the afterlife received via so-called spirit boxes.