The problem of what to do with digital legacies is only now being addressed as the dilemma of who owns digital assets becomes an issue affecting millions.
Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, blogs and website pages that endure long after their creator has passed away. Eerie? Strange? A regular blogger suddenly stops, leaving a silence in cyberspace that is noticed by his or her followers. Puzzlement for a while until a relative thinks to post a death notice. Then that's it. But what happens to all the information that is out there, defining what may be an entire lifetime?
Most people write a will disposing of all their worldly goods but now, as internet users get older, there is also digital property to think about. According to the
New York Times, there are about " five billion images and counting on Flickr; hundreds of thousands of YouTube videos uploaded every day; oceans of content from 20 million bloggers and 500 million Facebook members; two billion tweets a month" to be considered here. If, as the
New Scientist maintains, over 250,000 Facebook users will die in the next year, then there is an issue without precedent to be addressed.
