What happens to your online music, books, videos and photos when you die? Can you pass them on? SBS looks at the dos and don'ts of digital inheritance.
What should you do?
By all accounts, the easiest way to ensure your loved ones can access your online assets when you die is by making sure they have your user name and passwords.
Given that each soft-storage provider has different terms and conditions, it's a good idea to check carefully for clauses about the transfer of your materials, like the one prohibiting survivorship in the Flickr Terms or Service below.
What shouldn't you do?
Never leave your password in your will, as this becomes a public document after you die. That means anyone can view it.
Apple - iTunes
Apple removed digital rights management (DRM) from iTunes content in 2009, but its Terms and Conditions still state that users must not transfer anything bought on the service.
"This license does not allow you to use the Licensed Application on any Apple Device that you do not own or control, and except as provided in the Usage Rules, you may not distribute or make the Licensed Application available over a network where it could be used by multiple devices at the same time. You may not rent, lease, lend, sell, transfer redistribute, or sublicense the Licensed Application and, if you sell your Mac Computer or iOS Device to a third party, you must remove the Licensed Application from the Mac Computer or iOS Device before doing so. You may not copy (except as expressly permitted by this license and the Usage Rules), decompile, reverse-engineer, disassemble, attempt to derive the source code of, modify, or create derivative works of the Licensed Application, any updates, or any part thereof (except as and only to the extent that any foregoing restriction is prohibited by applicable law or to the extent as may be permitted by the licensing terms governing use of any open-sourced components included with the Licensed Application). Any attempt to do so is a violation of the rights of the Licensor and its licensors. If you breach this restriction, you may be subject to prosecution and damages," the Ts and Cs say.
The SBS Legal department has advised that inheritance law would most likely overpower that clause should a case be brought to court.
Under the law, all instances of 'you' or 'the account holder' would be interpreted as 'the executor (of your will) or 'the estate'.
If someone has left you their iTunes user name (the email address linked to their Apple ID) and password, you can simply log in as that person and transfer their collection to your device.
However that won't work if they had already been using it on five devices, which is the limit for any single Apple account.
Problems would also arise when the deceased's email account was deactivated, and their credit card cancelled.
Facebook
Facebook has a very clear-cut procedure for dealing with the accounts of deceased people, called 'memorialising the account'.
Users can notify Facebook that an account holder has passed away, and that person's Facebook page is then locked down, disallowing posts or access.
"When a user passes away, we memorialize their account to protect their privacy. Memorializing an account sets the account privacy so that only confirmed friends can see the profile (timeline) or locate it in search. Friends and family can leave posts in remembrance. Memorializing an account also prevents anyone from logging into the account," Facebook says.
Yahoo - Flickr
Yahoo goes as far as to outright prohibit users from perpetuating their accounts after their deaths.
No Right of Survivorship and Non-Transferability. You agree that your Yahoo! account is non-transferable and any rights to your Yahoo! ID or contents within your account terminate upon your death. Upon receipt of a copy of a death certificate, your account may be terminated and all contents therein permanently deleted.
Google e-books
Google has told SBS that its e-books can be bequeathed.
"A user who purchased a book in the Google eBooks store can pass the book on to his or her heirs," a spokesperson for the company said.
However, there is as yet no information on how this is done. SBS has contacted Google for more details and will publish them as soon as they are provided.
Amazon
The provider of digital content to the popular Kindle e-reader has taken a similar tack to Apple, essentially licensing - rather than selling - its products exclusively to a particular user, under its terms of service.
"Unless specifically indicated otherwise, you may not sell, rent, lease, distribute, broadcast, sublicense, or otherwise assign any rights to the Digital Content or any portion of it to any third party, and you may not remove or modify any proprietary notices or labels on the Digital Content. In addition, you may not bypass, modify, defeat, or circumvent security features that protect the Digital Content," the agreement says.
SBS has contacted Amazon for clarification if this is also in the case of death.
Share
