English Law Commission on Transmission of Digital Assets On Death

Transmission of Digital Assets on DeathNameInstitutional AffiliationDate
INTRODUCTION
In the emerging world that is surrounded by new technological advances, there are numerous disputes over the transfer of digital assets upon the death of an individual. In this case, the digital assets can be either of economic value, or they can also be called their dignitary, personal or they may be of non-economic value. In this world of ours, it is very difficult for an individual to live or exist without relying upon, referring to or communicating through the digital assets. Many people have invested on the internet, and as the days move, the internet is becoming the main storage of our financial and personal lives, and it does not seem to be stopping shortly. Digital assets can be used to refer can also be defined as any electronic record that can be used to gain access to online accounts, photographs, documents, domain names, social media accounts, domain names and even emails.[Sherry, supra note 16, at 210; see also Hopkins & Lipin, supra note 93, at 64 (emphasizing digital assets that have been more traditionally valued, such as customer lists).]
English Law Commission on Transmission of Digital Assets On Death
Different legislations try as much to address the issue of transfer of digital assets upon the death of an individual, but they are faced with some challenges that hinder their effectiveness. One of the common challenges is that many companies that offer online services would have formulated their contracts in such a way that the transferability of the rights of the user to another person is limited. One of the common instances that have been used in this context is the case of Adam. Adam, who is a specialist in Music closed his favorite album store and as such the loyalty that he had to the disc albums lost. He then makes a turnaround and decides to invest in the purchase of digital songs from iTunes. Within a short period, the venture of Adam becomes successful, and he then builds a collection of approximately ten thousand songs. As a way of ensuring that her daughter enjoys his music one day, he gifts her daughter a sense of legacy on his birthday. He goes ahead drafts and executes a will that states that the daughter will become the owner of the iTunes collection once he dies. He later dies, and the executor of the will tries to gain access to Adam's iTunes account and realizes that Apple has already terminated it. The Apple Company cites that according to the terms and conditions, they granted Adam a non-transferable license on his account and as a result, the daughter is unable to own any rights that pertain the iTunes account that his father owned. There are so many individuals just like Adam, who are unaware of the limited rights that are associated with the digital assets that they own.[See The Law Commission Working Paper No. 110, Computer Misuse, 1988; The Law Commission, Breach of Confidence, Report on a Reference Under Section 3(L)(E) of the Law Commissions Act 1965, Report No.110] [Compare iTunes Preview, APPLE, https://itunes.apple.com/us/album /confessions/id386153476 (last visited Dec. 12, 2016) (pricing Usher’s Confessions mp3 album at $10.99), with BEST BUY, /site/confessions-special-edition-cd/68...