Ask HN: What happens to my legal digital media when I die?

2 points·DanBC··4 comments

I've bought ebooks from Amazon. I've bought MP3 files from various places. I've bought videos from various places.

With CDs and DVDs and Bluray and dead-tree books I can just leave those to people in my will.

But what about the e-versions? Can I transfer the licence to someone else? Or does all that stuff effectively die with me?

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Your content dies with you. Read the terms of sale at your favorite MP3/movie/book store -- you're granted a non-transferrable license for personal use of the files. That means you cannot transfer that license to your relatives.

@pwg: Whether the media has DRM or not just determines how easy it is to make copies, not whether you have legal permission to make copies.

It goes away as you do, this all flows from when you liscensed the content instead of purchasing it.

Of course the startup I'm working on is to address this very issue, which is a legal/contract hack.

1) Buy only DRM free copies of electronic media; in this way your freedom to do what you wish with your electronic copy is not restricted;

2) Maintain your own data on physical storage media controlled only by you; this means your freedom to access your data is not restricted;

You can now transfer your data to your heirs when you die by transferring them the physical media, in the identical fashion with which you would transfer the physical CDs/DVDs/Blurays.

Doing anything else leaves your freedoms at the mercy of a corporation, and their interests will never align with your desires to exercise your freedoms.

You could give someone you're password (in your will) and hope that they update the credit card info. Otherwise, the account would most likely be closed due to inactivity.

I do not know any company's policy on accounts that are too old.

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