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Delaware Enacts Law Allowing Heirs To Access Digital Assets of Deceased
An anonymous reader writes Ars reports: "Delaware has become the first state in the U.S .to enact a law that ensures families' rights to access the digital assets of loved ones during incapacitation or after death." In other states, the social media accounts and email of people who die also die with them since the companies hosting those accounts are not obligated to transfer access even to the heirs of the deceased. In Delaware, however, this is no longer the case. The article notes that even if the deceased was a resident of another state, if his/her will is governed by Delaware law, his/her heirs will be allowed to avail of the new law and gain access to all digital assets of the deceased.
There are too many implications. While I am trustworthy of my family, and my father could have robbed me blind and fuck up all my life, I know he would not do that. However, it is not the first and last case where some old people found a new love, and the family takes away all their assets. The ideal is to leave the password, or better yet, some means of changing it, in a sealed enveloped, together with your will. (better some means of changing it, because in the improbable case of foul play, you will know it). Nevertheless, the inheritance of accounts, specially of accounts that control movies or music go against the desire of the industry or selling, reselling and reselling again the same movies and musics to every citizen.
... and the keys to your house, car, number of your credit cards and access to the storage-box at your bank.
Its not like you have anything to hide or that some heirs simply can't be trusted ...
I don't care much for the social media accounts, but it is good that bought ebooks, music and movies should be accessible to next of kin, just like their physical counterparts are.
Some people have already replied that you might not be able to trust everyone with your password, but that's only one of the problems. The other problem is that although your heirs may be able to physically read the password from your sealed envelope and type it in, just typing in the password won't make your access authorized. Trying to download the deceased's ebooks, music, or apps would be piracy, and even just revealing that you accessed the account (by trying to use the information in it in a billing dispute, or to take it to the press if it is whistleblowing in nature, for instance) could subject you to a selectively prosecuted hacking charge in court to get you to shut up.
And even if you don't actually get in legal trouble for accessing the account, companies could use the illegal nature of the access to refuse to do things that they would do upon request of the account owner, such as closing the account (if you want it closed), leaving the account open (if you want to keep paying for it), or restoring or sending you a backup.
Why would I want my porn collection going to my wife? I'd much rather give it to my girlfriend. After all, we bought most of it together.
So transferring digital goods on death is now allowed.
How about when I'm still alive?