Death is booming on the Net. Legacy.com syndicates obituaries and death notices and allows people to write what it calls “Moving Tributes” to the dearly departed in virtual “guest books.” It’s attracting six million visitors a month and racking up annual sales of nearly $6 million. Findagrave.com lists the locations of 13 million gravestones and lets visitors post comments about the souls who rest beneath. It also has a virtual cemetery that members of the “Find A Grave Community” can “stroll through.” In addition to running banner ads, the site sells find-a-grave lapel pins and travel mugs. And then, of course, there’s MyDeathSpace.com. It profiles MySpace members who have died – about 25 a day – and supports itself with text ads that, among other things, promise to help you “Find Your Soulmate.”

Now, you’d think these sites would be oasises of calm amid the vulgar hurly-burly of the Internet. But you’d be wrong. Not even the dead, it turns out, are beyond the reach of spammers, flamers, and vandals.

“Dissing the dead,” reports the New York Times, “has become a costly and complicated problem for Legacy and other Web sites where people gather to mourn online.” Legacy employs 45 people – out of a total work force of 75 – to weed spam and insults out of its guest books. Spammers use the books to “sell religions, coffins, even Viagra.” But it’s the flaming posts, which range from memories of petty slights to accusations of molestation, that are the bigger problem. An example from Legacy: “She never took the time to meet me, but I understand she was a wonderful grandmother to her other grandchildren.” Another: “I sincerely hope the Lord has more mercy on him than he had on me during my years reporting to him at the Welfare Department.” (Revenge is a dish best served very, very cold.) MyDeathSpace.com disabled the comment function on its site a couple of months ago because “so many people had been writing nasty things.”

Justin Rowan, a professional embalmer, puts the problem in perspective. “When they’re face to face at a funeral, people don’t have the guts to do something like that and write something offensive,” he tells the Times. “On the Internet, people might not even know the guy, but they might feel free to write something.”

You know what? I just thought of a great business idea for some savvy entrepreneur: Open a funeral parlor in Second Life, and call it Second Death. I’m telling you: It’ll be even bigger than MyDeathSpace.com.