Who legally owns the memories and photos in an archive?

Your family does. Each person owns what they contribute — your words are yours, your photos are yours. The archive's owner acts as steward of the collection: they decide what's published, how it's organized, and who may see what, but stewardship isn't ownership of other people's contributions.

DearestEllie claims no rights beyond what's needed to operate the service — storing your files, making playback copies, showing memories to the people you've chosen. We don't own your stories, we don't license them to anyone, and nothing in our terms quietly changes that.