Who Owns Digital Assets?

These days, most of us have our music, movies and books on our computers or our phones. But what will happen to these collections once the owner dies?

Cover of "Kindle Wireless Reading Device,...
Cover via Amazon

You may want your heirs to have these collections, but it isn’t that easy to pass them along since there are no physical copies.

User agreements with companies like Apple and Amazon say that when you purchase digital books, songs and movies, you are buying only a license to use the content, says an article on elderlawanswers.com.

You do not have the right to transfer these files to anyone else, the story says, not even when you die.

This may change one day as some states are mulling passing laws dealing with digital assets, but most of these have to do with email and social media accounts, not content.

If you own a device that has content, you can give that device to your heirs and give them your passwords, but it is not certain that the content will always be there.

There has been some talk about setting up trusts to purchase online content but this remains a legal gray area, the story says.

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