Digital Life after Death

[swimmer]

Found this on the CNN website. Something to think about.

http://www.cnn.com/2009/TECH/05/18/deat ... st_techmon

Your husband, an avid gamer and techie, dies of a heart attack, leaving his vast online life ­-- one you don't know much about ­-- in limbo.


Eternal Space lets loved ones create customized online gravesites and memorial pages.

His accounts, to which you don't know the passwords, go idle. His e-mails go unanswered, his online multiplayer games go on without him and bidders on his eBay items don't know why they can't get an answer from the seller.

Web site domains that he has purchased, some of which are now worth hundreds of thousands of dollars,­ will expire, and you may never know.

It's a scenario that's becoming more likely as we spend more of our lives online. And it's raising more questions about what happens to our online lives after we log off for the final time.

The answer, until recently, was nothing.

But now, as online usage increases and social-media sites soar in popularity, more companies are popping up to try and fill that void created in your digital life after death.

**Edit Note**

Sorry I had to crop this article, but thankfully there is a link!! Go check it out!!

 

[ShoeSh1ne]

If someone had a domain worth "hundreds of thousands of dollars", their wife would know.

 

[Sometimes]

After my dad died it was really useful that I knew his standard password to most of his accounts.

After that experience, I made sure my best friend knows my standard passwords, and I know hers. Seems like a cheaper alternative.

 

[BaNgMyPrOgRaM]

Put your passwords in a safety deposit box to be opened by your SO, after your death...

 

[xjohnx]

deathswitch.com

Why would you want to do such a thing? The company's web site points out a variety of potential reasons, like not leaving your coworkers and family high and dry without important passwords or information and getting a secret off your chest now that you're gone.
...
Death Switch determines when to send out the messages by sending out messages to you on a regular basis. If you fail to respond to enough of those messages in a row, the emails are mailed out.

 

[NickGeorge21VCU]

Something about giving my passwords up to a stranger on the internet doesn't rub me right.

 

[buckwheat]

Something about giving my passwords up to a stranger on the internet doesn't rub me right.

yeah, but giving up that password for the remainder of your milfhunter.com account will rub someone right. it's like the gift that keeps on giving.

 

[artRAMinMN]

<insert standard artRAM copyright-nerd ramble about not posting whole articles>

Speaking of copyright, there can also be a big problem with orphan copyrights... in the US, a personally-held copyright lasts for the life of the author/creator +70 years. If not spelled out by a will, the copyright goes to whomever that jurisdiction's statutes say personal property goes to(usually, next of kin). So there are lots of creative works out there that have been orphaned by their maker, but aren't necessarily organized/documented in a way to alert that next-of-kin (or the executor, etc) of their existence. These works are in a kind of limbo, they're still under protection and not in the public domain, yet there isn't an active rights-holder to license with, and so these works are like ghosts.

 

[RamboRowdy]

Something about giving my passwords up to a stranger on the internet doesn't rub me right.

yeah, but giving up that password for the remainder of your milfhunter.com account will rub someone right. it's like the gift that keeps on giving.

and a Happy Mrs. at home