What Will Become Of Your Digital Assets

What will happen to your digital assets when you die?

Oskaloosa, Iowa – Running an online news source means that life behind a keyboard, a camera lens or voice recorder is the normal.

We take thousands and thousands of photos every year in the journey that is Osky News, and recently that massive undertaking became painfully obvious.

The main computer we have used to produce the site had become bloated with images, scripts and digital voice recordings. Now most everything is backed up, many times in triplicate, but one day, while using a computer not normally used for production, it decided its time was up. Or, should I say the hard drive that stores all of the images, amongst other things, decided it didn’t want to cooperate any longer.

There was a bit of panic because there were some images and other information that had not yet been backed up on that particular computer. With some work, I was able to retrieve everything and move it to the normal backup locations.

To help solve this problem, I ordered a device that will live on our computer network and allow easy backup and retrieval of data, if needed.

During all of this, it made me think of the complexity my family might face figuring out my and the Osky News digital legacy when my days are up.

In days gone by, it was the passing of family photos from one to another or a surprise box of letters from some far off relative, who may be at war or some other mission work. 8mm and VHS tapes all holding those precious memories of days gone by.

Unfortunately, those objects will decay and eventually those memories will be lost unless they are converted to a digital format.

But then, we are facing the problem of the digital format. What happens if it gets deleted or destroyed? What about all of those precious family emails that tell of births, deaths or other memorable events in one’s life. Many of us use those free services such as Yahoo mail or Hotmail.

Those services are great, but can be a problem in the future as well. Just like saving our images on Flickr, or our life story on Facebook, the terms of service are for you, and once the notice of your death makes its way to them, your account could be removed and those memories lost forever.

The business end of Osky News, of course, would be immediate. Though beyond that, how would I make sure my family has access to all of those digital objects? Who will own them when I am gone? My heir should, but will they have access to them? Do they even know they exist? Will my grandchildren or theirs even care to keep those photos or videos?

Currently there is little legislation that helps cover or even protect a person’s digital legacy or “digital estate” in the same way one’s physical property is protected. How will you be remembered in the digital future? Will your family continue to help make sure those assets are still online after you die? Will buying into a service like Legacy Locker be an answer? I’m not so sure.

I think some old laws will need to be revisited and updated for a digital society to help protect those assets in the same way a physical asset is. Domain names gain value, photos are able to be sold and licensed, and your written work is protected according to your wishes.

Time will tell how digital property is viewed in the future, and how much value we put upon it.