When You Die....

In DUNE, everyone had wealth in the form of bodily fluids, except that their water belonged to the tribe, and the dessicated remains to their family. There's a lot more inspiring (or not) matter about recycling, and also some sub plots that might relate to modern day discoveries about DNA, auras , bioenergy fields, and ghosts, and how the human mind can (perhaps) change or repair its own DNA.

But, most of us have wealth that we may never consider: intellectual property wealth. What might once have been included in ones estate as photograph albums, diaries, scrapbooks, reels of film and carousels of slides may now be stored and locked in a "cloud" or server farm belonging to a big tech entity. Without a password and a plan, ones beneficiaries might not be able to reclaim digitally stored NFTs, bitcoins, domain names, photographs, social media accounts and so forth.

Legal blogger Nicole L. Petrow of the law firm McGrath North Mullin & Kratz discusses the important steps one should take to ensure that ones loved ones are able to inherit ones sentimental and financial digital treasures... not to mention ones Facebook account.

Original Link: 

https://www.mcgrathnorth.com/estate-planning-for-digital-assets-intangible-but-important

Lexology Link:  

https://www.lexology.com/library/detail.aspx?g=e2165378-4742-4499-891b-418234755824

 

Nicole L. Petrow's article seems comprehensive, thorough, and well worth doing. Also, it is by far the most recent and current article on the subject, so although I have reviewed other articles, I have not included links to articles from the two-thousand-and-teens.

 

Authors who have copyright registration documents for their books and trademarks etc should be sure to include mention of those and an assignment to an executor of ones copyrights in their wills. An article by Fred Rocafort of Harris Bricken about "shenanigans" on Amazon illustrates why one should be sure that ones loved ones have proof of copyright registration, not only for novels and other literary works, but also for ones blurbs and advertising copy!

 

Lexology Link: 

https://www.lexology.com/library/detail.aspx?g=0d02c96f-29cd-4106-b1ab-f3c0321df3db

 

Original Link: 

https://harrisbricken.com/chinalawblog/amazon-seller-shenaningans-and-why-you-must-register-your-copyrights/#page=1 

 

All the best,

 

Rowena Cherry 

SPACE SNARK™ 

http://www.spacesnark.com/   

http://www.rowenacherry.com

 

Of Letters, Lies, And Legacies

Among the movies showing free this long, holiday weekend is "Can You Forgive Me?" based on the true story of an author who became a forger of dead celebrities' private letters.

Lee Israel is said to have believed that her forgeries were the best work of her life. The greatest mistake of her life (perhaps apart from misspelling "arse"), may have been in not accepting a bribe.

This is a fascinating read:
http://www.historyvshollywood.com/reelfaces/can-you-ever-forgive-me/

On the topic of lies, I was reminded of a song by Greenslade that I have always like very much for a particular line that I probably should not quote, because songs have so few lines that it is easy to infringe the songwriter's copyright by accident.  The line is about untruth in journalism.

I believe this link will take you to "Newsworth" and Greenslade or their estates will be inadequately compensated, but compensated somewhat.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IuWAk1Soeyw&list=OLAK5uy_mqXdw-xi7F93T-RWu3qyyQ-oLcMZVJ2Kw&index=2

Sequeing to estates and estate planning...legal bloggers Joseph B Doll and Michael J. Kearney, writing for Cole Schotz PC, discuss what happens when a bitcoin investor dies unexpectedly, without making sure his or her or their loved ones have the cyber key and passwords to unlock his/her/their digital property.
https://www.lexology.com/library/detail.aspx?g=1daa55a6-6d41-411f-a82a-4ab75d3e0e46

Or, for the original:
https://www.cstaxtrustestatesblog.com/2018/04/articles/estate-planning/considerations-estate-planning-bitcoin-ethereum-crypto-currencies/#page=1

One can also lose invaluable photographs and other intangible delights if they are locked up in Facebook or Drop Box or a proprietary "cloud".

For Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner LLP,  Joshua Boughton discusses digital assets with a focus on the inheritance dilemmas of British persons.
https://www.bclplaw.com/en-GB/thought-leadership/digital-assets-and-estate-planning.html

Harking back to copyright and private letters, legal blogger Ken Moon, writing for AJ Park examines the case for copyright infringement when a newspaper publishes substantial portions of a living celebrity's private and personal letter.
https://www.ajpark.com/insights/articles/meghan-markle-v-mail-on-sunday/

It's all food for thought concerning the enduring value of letters, especially for authors and creators. One might also give some thought to the preservation (or not) of text messages and emails... and unpublished works.

One might also consider leaving instructions in one's Will concerning social media accounts, ancestry-related social media accounts, health and fitness logging accounts.
https://www.pcworld.com/article/3451737/google-fitbit-purchase-data-health-care-fitness.html

At least it wasn't Amazon that acquired the ability to track your heart rate and daily steps and swings of the arms via a device that you paid to purchase, not to mention the details you uploaded to the site to record your water consumption by the glass, your dietary choices, your weight and more!
https://writersweekly.com/in-the-news/11-29-2019?utm_source=mailpoet&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=writersweekly-com-112119_67


All the best,

Rowena Cherry 

SPACE SNARK™ http://www.spacesnark.com/ 

Death and Your Photographs

Legal blogger Ally Tow, writing for Boyes Turner LLP, discusses a case of sudden death, and denied access to the deceased's albums stored with a secretive social media giant.

https://www.lexology.com/library/detail.aspx?g=9fd55912-7b0a-4ce1-824e-9212709973b7&utm_source=Lexology+Daily+Newsfeed&utm_medium=HTML+email&utm_campaign=Lexology+subscriber+daily+feed&utm_content=Lexology+Daily+Newsfeed+2019-05-20&utm_term=

or
https://www.boyesturner.com/article/accessing-a-deceaseds-digital-accounts

No matter your age or excellent health, you should have a Will, a Living Will, a medical Power of Attorney, a clause in your Will giving your heirs legal access to your social media accounts, and --if you are a writer-- you should assign your copyrights.

Be sure to leave your certificates of copyright registration and any copyright reversion letters from former publishers in a safe place, and also perhaps, a list of your internet accounts and passwords.

All the best,

Rowena Cherry
SPACE SNARK™ http://www.spacesnark.com/ 

Letters Of The Dead...

Copyright lasts for the life of the author, plus seventy years (depending on the jurisdiction under which you live and die), and copyright is automatic as soon as a thought is expressed in some tangible medium.

That means, you own the copyright to the letters that you write, even if you don't register every letter (or any letter) with your country's copyright office.  Perhaps persons who live interesting and/or notorious lives should give some thought to bequeathing the rights to their letters.

British law, at least, assumes that, unless a writer's Will says otherwise, letters are a gift to the recipient, and the copyright is also a gift to the recipient.

Dominic Cole, legal blogger for Collyer Bristow LLP, discusses the unsealing of the Will of King Edward VIII (better known as the Duke of Windsor), and the great interest in whether or not he expressed any wishes with regard to copyright and his letters.

https://www.lexology.com/library/detail.aspx?g=f2eb5ff6-19ad-4666-847b-9de32b330949&utm_source=Lexology+Daily+Newsfeed&utm_medium=HTML+email+-+Body+-+General+section&utm_campaign=Lexology+subscriber+daily+feed&utm_content=Lexology+Daily+Newsfeed+2018-02-22&utm_term=

It's food for thought.  As is Dominic Cole's final thought concerning what's in your crypto-currency wallet, and can your executor access it.


All the best,

Rowena Cherry
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