Article on Managing Digital Assets
Jamie P.Hopkins (The American College) recently published an article entitled, Afterlife in the Cloud: Managing a DigitalEstate, 5 Hastings Sci. & Tech. L.J. 209 (Summer 2013). Provided below is the introduction to his article:
Astounding technological innovations and widespread access tothe internet has ushered in a new lifestyle: the digital life. This new digitallifestyle has resulted in the digitalization of businesses, social lives, andwealth, creating unprecedented legal challenges, and perhaps, more than everbefore, reinforcing Benjamin Franklin’s eloquently stated notion that “nothingcan be said to be certain, except death and taxes.”
Withthe digitalization of assets and property, estate planning for the digitalworld has become increasingly complex. Traditionally, transferring property,wealth, and assets from one generation to another has been a fundamentalproperty right and a primary focus of estate planning. However, the growth ofthe internet, development of digital lifestyles, and digitalization of assetsare challenging the effectiveness of traditional estate planning mechanisms.For example, by end of 2012, an estimated thirty-million Facebook profiles willhave outlived their owners. These digital legacies are left behind long afterpeople die, begging the question: “What happens to my digital life when I die?”
SectionII of this paper discusses the development of the digital life and thedigitalization of assets. Section III examines challenges presented by planningfor the disposition and management of digital assets. Section IV comparesexisting estate planning techniques for digital assets, highlighting privacy,security, and efficiency concerns with current strategies. Section V proposes avariety of recommendations in order to reinforce the property, privacy, andestate planning rights of digital asset owners. Lastly, Section VI willconclude the article with a discussion regarding the importance of balancingtraditional estate planning methods with digital estate concerns withoutjeopardizing a deceased’s privacy, security, and legacy goals.