Does your will include gifting your ebooks?

[murg]

Originally Posted by burnafterreading

AFAIK, when you buy an ebook you're not buying a product but rather a non-transferable license to use a product (see T&C that you "read and agreed to"). when you expire, so does your license. you can have the ereader device in your will, but not a license.

Whether an eBook is a good or a service can be determined by its tax status. If you are charged sales tax on the purchase (in a locality that doesn't charge on services, like many US states), then it is a good, and should be inheritable.

Originally Posted by burnafterreading

just like when you die, your kids can inherit your car, but not your driver's license. it's the exact same concept.

Nope. Your driver's license is a government issued document, that is not transferable or inheritable.

[Lynx-lynx]

Originally Posted by Quexos

Never thought of making a will, once I'm dead I don't care anymore what happens to my stuff. Besides over here wills are expensive to make, you must see a notary and well it's complicated.

How do people pass their property on at their death? How does a person's real property or the proceeds of sale of real property (that is property sold at the death of the owner), become distributed if it isn't being bequested? Does it all revert back to the State?

In Australia any adult can make a Will no matter if it's written on the back of a menu or whatever. It should be witnessed and dated however, although I recall examples where the courts overlooked those aspects.

[Lynx-lynx]

Originally Posted by latepaul

A will is a legal document so we can't ignore the law. I imagine adding an item in your will for something that isn't legally yours could create issues and possibly (speculating here) invalidate the whole thing. I wouldn't want to risk it unless I was sure I had the right to bequeath it.

Which isn't to say I wouldn't leave a letter with the will which contained a master password. Except I have no one to leave anything to anyway so it's a bit moot for me.

No, a Will isn't invalidated because one or more of the Clauses isn't able to be acted upon for whatever reason. The rest of the Will still stands.

[pidgeon92]

I really doubt anybody wants my junk; physical or digital. As for my money, they're not getting that either.

[Lynx-lynx]

Originally Posted by pidgeon92

I really doubt anybody wants my junk; physical or digital. As for my money, they're not getting that either.

What about making arrangements for any on-line accounts that you have at the time of your demise?

For example if you had any accounts that had photos of you and/or your family etc in them. Facebook is one such account, (and I don't have a Facebook account), but there are other accounts which wouldn't be 'closed' and may remain open and accessible for ever.

Would you leave instructions as to your account details and request the acccount/s to be closed?

[Quexos]

Originally Posted by Lynx-lynx

How do people pass their property on at their death? How does a person's real property or the proceeds of sale of real property (that is property sold at the death of the owner), become distributed if it isn't being bequested? Does it all revert back to the State?

If you're asking about where I live, well as I said a will can be made but it's expensive and you must do it before a notary.
But if you don't have a will then when you die your stuff passes to the next of kin, after being heavily taxed of course. In the case you have no relative alive then it goes to the government (unless otherwise specified in a will).

[DiapDealer]

I'm going to split my digital library onto hundreds of pen-drives and scatter them across the countryside in little hermetically sealed pods; each of which will grow into a mighty library after my passing. My tale will be passed from generation to generation in the Ballad of Johnny Bookseed.

I'm not making any arrangements for my death other than making sure no one has to spend their own money to plant me. Digital media, online accounts--meh... I don't care what happens to them.

[Barbara1955]

Well Don't care who gets mine. They are ALL copied to my External HD.. drm gone! BUT know my son he will Clean it & put his SIMS games on the HD

[eschwartz]

Before I think about passing on my own stuff I'd like to think about helping my family get control of the stuff they already have.

For example, my mother's emils are all on the computer that just crashed... in Outlook, using POP3 instead of IMAP, which means her GMail account is a wreck and the stuff from before GMail is... issueful.

So next time I go home I will have some work to do to make sure anyone in my family has any digital files at all. Stuff is (was?) spread across accounts as well as random folders in obscure locations IIRC, backed up in random folders after two different repair installs or something, and haphazardly backed up to an external hard drive.

Fortunately, I think the problem is merely with Windows, not the hard drive, but still... fun.

And you want to know if I will be passing stuff on to them.

[murg]

Originally Posted by Lynx-lynx

How do people pass their property on at their death? How does a person's real property or the proceeds of sale of real property (that is property sold at the death of the owner), become distributed if it isn't being bequested? Does it all revert back to the State?

If there isn't a will, the law provides for how the estate is distributed (to rellies, etc). And no, the State doesn't get any.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by murg

If there isn't a will, the law provides for how the estate is distributed (to rellies, etc). And no, the State doesn't get any.

It does (in the UK, at least) if the deceased has no living relatives. In that situation, the estate goes to the Treasury. Plus, of course, if the total value of your estate exceeds the threshold for inheritance tax (which realistically means pretty much anyone who leaves a house as part of their estate) the state gets a hefty chunk of tax.

[Lynx-lynx]

That's an interesting point - would the digital property of a person who dies intestate go to the State (where that is the law)? For example: ebooks, music, fims, audio books. (Yeah I know at the moment people will say that they're copyrighted but that may not continue to be the case - so for the sake of discussion consider all digital property to be inheritable)

Murg I think it might still be the case in NSW that where a person dies intestate and there are no immediate relatives that the residue of the estate goes to the State.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by Lynx-lynx

That's an interesting point - would the digital property of a person who dies intestate go to the State (where that is the law)? For example: ebooks, music, fims, audio books. (Yeah I know at the moment people will say that they're copyrighted but that may not continue to be the case - so for the sake of discussion consider all digital property to be inheritable)

It's not the fact that they are protected by copyright that's the issue. All sorts of things are protected by copyright, but can still be inherited: books, DVDs, CDs, etc.

The issue with digital goods is the fact that they are licensed, not sold, and the contract you have with the supplier says that the licence is not transferable. Ie it's a matter of contract law, not copyright.

Murg I think it might still be the case in NSW that where a person dies intestate and there are no immediate relatives that the residue of the estate goes to the State.

It has to go somewhere, so really the state is the only place it can go.

[Lynx-lynx]

Harry so I'm thinking that digital property could also end up in the possesion od the State - iirrespective of the current licencing arrangement.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by Lynx-lynx

Harry so I'm thinking that digital property could also end up in the possesion od the State - iirrespective of the current licencing arrangement.

If a court rules that "non transferable licence" arrangement can't be enforced, then yes, it could, in which case the state would do what it always does in such situations, and sell it off (usually by auction).