Presentation Outline: Digital Legacies – Examining the State of Digital Assets Upon Death

Have you ever thought about how much “stuff” you own that resides entirely online?

Do you attach some sort of real-world value to these assets?

Would you feel personal loss if certain digital assets were irretrievably lost?

In the event of death – what happens to these digital assets?

In this week’s presentation, Ellie, John, and Kiana will discuss the current state of succession law in relation to digital assets and how we must look beyond succession law to view the matter of digital inheritance as an intersection between succession, intellectual property, contract, and privacy law.

As an emerging area of law there are many issues that need to be addressed, however, we have narrowed our focus down to the following matters:

• What are digital assets?
• What is the current state of testate law in relation to digital assets?
• Common hurdles when dealing with digital assets
• Valuation of non-traditional digital assets
• Control: Rights vs. Ownership
• Can we regain control?

Associated Pre-Reading:

1. “Eve Online virtual war ‘costs $300,000’ in damage” https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-25944837
2. “ULCC: Uniform Access to Digital Assets by Fiduciaries Act (2016)” https://www.ulcc.ca/images/stories/2016_pdf_en/2016ulcc0006.pdf
3. “Comment: Regulating Virtual Property with EULAs” http://wisconsinlawreview.org/comment-regulating-virtual-property-with-eulas/