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Ask Slashdot: What's the Best Way To Preserve a "Digital Inheritance"?

Posted by samzenpus on from the won't-somebody-please-think-of-the-children? dept.

First time accepted submitter ron-l-j writes "The last few months a digital inheritance idea has been floating around in my head, and I am sure the thought has crossed your mind as well. With Google talking about the inactive account program it made me wonder, how do I make sure my children get my iTunes, and amazon movies? I have plenty of mp4 movies on my server that will just set itself to admin with no password after I do not log in within a 6 month time frame. But what about the huge amount spent on digital content every year? What's the best way to make sure your "digital inheritance" gets passed down?"

5 of 191 comments (clear)

  1. You don't own by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Any of it.

    1. Re:You don't own by captaindomon · · Score: 5, Informative

      I agree completely with parent. There is a difference between passing an inheritance to your children and providing access. I can leave the keys to my house to my children, but that doesn't mean the legal possession of the house will pass to them. Very different concepts.

      --
      Just because I can hook a shark from a boat, I do no offer to wrestle it in the water.
    2. Re:You don't own by ArsonSmith · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Exactly, if you want to insure your children get your digital collection, fight for more sane copyright term lengths.

      --
      Paying taxes to buy civilization is like paying a hooker to buy love.
  2. Children don't like their parents music by grewil · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Few would care for their parents music collection.

  3. There's already an app for that... by ZeroPly · · Score: 5, Interesting

    ... in a manner of speaking. This is a well known problem in crypto.

    My way: all of my passwords and secret documents are in an encrypted folder which I update along with my will. Included are final farewells, secrets, where the bodies are buried, and so on. The key is split (look up PKI key splitting) into 5 parts. My girlfriend, father, buddy at work, and two of my friends each have a part. For security reasons, those are just examples. Four of those parts together are required to unlock. At my death each one turns in their part to the executor of my will who already has instructions on how to get it put together.

    It is not a good idea to naively split a 10 char password into two 5 char pieces, and assume that brute force will be necessary to guess one of those parts. That is a very dangerous assumption if you are not an expert with the particular algorithms used.

    --
    Support microSD: in a post 9/11 world, it is unwise to carry your data on media that you cannot comfortably swallow.