We include here a brief overview of the policies on death of the major web services. These do not always acknowledge the true legal position as to ownership of your content which can, therefore, be lost unless notice is given to impose your rights after your death. The variation between the policies underlines the importance of taking control of your digital estate in your lifetime in the way offered by My Digital Executor. To further complicate matters when internet accounts are left unplanned, most, if not all, services reserve to themselves the right to amend their rules at any time. By way of example, Betfair announced in December 2010 that they will gradually reduce balances on accounts that have been left inactive after 12 months. Indeed UK members living or working abroad may have the whole balance forfeited by default to the Maltese Lotteries and Gaming Authority. To avoid these problems, we will contact all accounts on your registration to put the service owners under formal notice that you have set out legally enforceable rights over the accounts, put on record our contact details to them and require contact on any future application to them over posthumous management of the account. (All information is as of December 2010).
Many services require a copy of the Death Certificates. Please note that in the UK they can be ordered online by anyone in reference to the death of any person at https://www.gro.gov.uk/gro/content/certificates/Login.asp
- Amazon
- Betfair
- Blogger
- CD Baby
- eBay
- Hotmail
- iTunes
- MySpace
- Nimbit
- PayPal
- Picasa
- Reverbnation
- Songcast
- Tunecore
- Valleyarm
- Yahoo
- YouTube
Amazon (www.amazon.com) They appear to have no specific policy and will close down an account including an Associate account on being informed by anyone of a death of a member with evidence such as a Death Certificate (which, in the UK, anyone can obtain). Amazon Associates accounts can generate significant value, especially if operational for a period of time with good visitor numbers and a good feedback history. Top
Betfair (www.betfair.com) This is a popular online betting service. Funds are held under a Trust Deed, with members being beneficiaries. There is no specific policy on what happens to member accounts and balances on death. However, there are provisions that apply in cases of inactivity on the account. As from the 31st December 2010, UK members will be charged a small monthly inactivity fee where there has been no activity for 12 months, which, whilst they may reinstate on later activity, will slowly drain any balance over time where the owner has died and, as may not be unusual with betting and gambling accounts, the next of kin have no knowledge of its existence. For members not registered either in the UK or Australasia, which would include UK citizens (e.g ‘ex-pats’) living, and accessing the Internet from, abroad, Betfair state that any funds lying to the credit of the account after 12 months of inactivity ‘may’, on their inability to contact you following one month’s notice (such as will occur on your death without any planning for this account), be forfeited to the Malta Lotteries and Gaming Authority. Top
Blogger (www.blogger.com) This one of the largest and most well known online services for the creation and publication of a blog (weblog) containing content (articles, comment, opinion etc) you, and those you permit, upload on to your own pages. Whilst they acknowledge your ownership of the content, there is no specific death policy, but with the potential for deletion by default of renewal, it is important to establish full entitlement such as through using My Digital Executor. Top
CD Baby (www.cdbaby.com) This is an online service for the distribution of digital music to the independent sector. If the deceased is a member and uploads self-created music ,which CD Baby distributes under licence on iTunes and elsewhere, then the rights to the account and the music belongs to the estate of the deceased. There is no specific death policy, but the terms of this site do acknowledge the rights of the executors to a deceased estate, thus making it important , especially with the risk of deletion through default of renewal, to establish full entitlement such as through using My Digital Executor. Top
Ebay (www.ebay.com) There is no specific policy save that they will close down the account and any eBay store if informed by anyone of a death who produces a Death Certificate. Since, in the UK at least, anyone can obtain a Death Certificate of the death of any person, there is a significant risk that the asset that is, for example, an eBay store, including the value in its trading history and feedback, not to mention the fate of ongoing transactions, can be lost to the person to whom you may wish to be, or the law may require to be, entitled to your estate. This also gives the opportunity for competitors to close down a site before those entitled to the shop, as part of the deceased’s digital estate, become aware of its existence. Top
Facebook (www.facebook.com) Will allow the first person to contact them, who can be anybody, including someone who is neither next of kin or an executor, with evidence of the death in the form of an obituary to delete it or convert it into a memorial site on completion of a form available here. Top
Hotmail (www.hotmail.com) The policy is here. One problem with this policy is that anyone can inform Microsoft of the death whereupon, with no evidence of any relationship, authority or proof of the death, they will put the account under a six month preservation status. If the required documents are not delivered within that six months the account will be closed and all mail deleted. There is, therefore, a potential for full loss through the actions of unauthorised people.
The documents required, in addition to a Death Certificate are “paperwork stating that you are the benefactor or executor to the deceased’s estate and/or that you have Power of Attorney and are next-of-kin.” The inclusion of an ‘and/or’ means that someone who is not the appointed executor under a Will could apply.
Another problem is that Microsoft also requires the applicant to provide information that the applicant may not have , e.g. the physical address that Microsoft have on their records (the deceased may have moved many times without informing them or mistyped the information) as well as the ‘approximate’ dates when the account was opened and when the deceased last signed in. None of these latter two pieces of information may be readily known to a grieving spouse, parent or child. Top
iTunes (www.itunes.com) There is no policy at all for notification of a member’s death. The issue that can be relevant here is for people who have created music and use sites like iTunes, which distributes around 80% of all digital downloads to distribute it under licence. However, the service to contact in this case is the intermediary service that offers to undertake the distribution,of which there are a number of main ones e.g. CD Baby, Nimbit, Valleyarm. Top
LinkedIn (www.linkedin.com) The Policy is here. They provide a form to close down and remove an account, including all the blogs and messages , and which does not need to be completed by a family member or indeed even a fiend (‘other’ to describe the applicant’s relationship to the deceased, is an option on the form besides family or friend). Top
My Space (www.myspace.com) The policy can be found by going to this page and entering ‘death’ in the search box.
MySpace will delete or preserve only at the request of someone who is next of kin, specifically defined by My Space as mother, father, spouse, son, daughter or ‘legally registered domestic partner’. The latter category opens up potential problems with conflicting laws between countries as to the status of partners. Top
Nimbit (www.nimbit.com) This is an online service for the distribution of digital music to the independent sector. If the deceased is a member and uploads self-created music ,which Nimbit distributes under licence on iTunes and elsewhere, then the rights to the account and the music belongs to the estate of the deceased. There is no specific death policy, but with the inevitable potential for deletion by default of renewal, it is important to establish full entitlement such as through using My Digital Executor. Top
PayPal (www.paypal.com) PayPal is the most used internet payment and banking service. There are no provisions for the death of account holders. Under their rules, if an account is not accessed for three years, it is closed down. If PayPal cannot at that time locate the account holder, they will deposit the balance funds with the Luxembourg Caisse de Consignation in accordance with the law of the Duchy of Luxembourg. Top
Picasa (picasa.google.com) This is one of the largest and most well known online services for the uploading of photographs. Your estate will own the rights to your own photographs, and such may or may not have commercial value. Whilst they acknowledge your ownership of the content, there is no specific death policy, but with the potential for deletion by default of renewal, it is important to establish full entitlement such as through using My Digital Executor. Top
Reverbnation (www.reverbnation.com) This is an online service for the distribution of digital music to the independent sector. If the deceased is a member and uploads self-created music ,which Reverbnation distributes under licence on iTunes and elsewhere, then the rights to the account and the music belongs to the estate of the deceased. There is no specific death policy, but with the inevitable potential for deletion by default of renewal, it is important to establish full entitlement such as through using My Digital Executor. Top
Songcast (www.songcastmusic.com) This is an online service for the distribution of digital music to the independent sector. If the deceased is a member and uploads self-created music ,which Songcast distributes under licence on iTunes and elsewhere, then the rights to the account and the music belongs to the estate of the deceased. There is no specific death policy, but with the inevitable potential for deletion by default of renewal, it is important to establish full entitlement such as through using My Digital Executor. Top
Tunecore (www.tunecore.com) This is an online service for the distribution of digital music to the independent sector. If the deceased is a member and uploads self-created music ,which Tunecore distributes under licence on iTunes and elsewhere, then the rights to the account and the music belongs to the estate of the deceased. There is no specific death policy, but with the inevitable potential for deletion by default of renewal, it is important to establish full entitlement such as through using My Digital Executor. Top
Twitter (www.twitter.com) Notwithstanding that their terms acknowledge a member’s ownership of all rights in the tweets, they invite anyone to contact them at privacy@twitter.com, to notify of a death of a user and to request that the account be either deleted or help save a backup of their public tweets. There is no commitment to what they will do but all they require from the person contacting them is evidence of the death which they list as either an obituary or public announcement. Top
Valleyarm (www.valleyarm.com) This is an online service for the distribution of digital music to the independent sector. If the deceased is a member and uploads self-created music ,which Valleyarm distributes under licence on iTunes and elsewhere, then the rights to the account and the music belongs to the estate of the deceased. There is no specific death policy, but with the inevitable potential for deletion by default of renewal, it is important to establish full entitlement such as through using My Digital Executor. Top
Yahoo (www.yahoo.com) The policy is included within the Terms of Service available here and which includes this item:-
“ You agree that your Yahoo! account is non-transferable and any rights to your Yahoo! ID or contents within your account terminate upon your death. Upon receipt of a copy of a death certificate, your account may be terminated and all contents therein permanently deleted.”
This is a difficult one since there can be legal debate over whether you can contract out of the law that dictates that, on your death, the content passes under your Will (or in accordance with the laws of intestacy that apply on the absence of a Will). Top
You Tube (www.youtube.com) The policy is here. This policy does require a ‘Power of Attorney’. This is a separate legal document to the appointment of an executor under a Will but YouTube probably will include such an appointment under Probate as the same as a PoA. This does not, however, avoid a potential problem if the deceased happened to have granted a PoA to someone who is not the executor. Top
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