If You Die, So Do Your Digital Downloads

Chris of C-Tech World writes;

Out of mere curiosity,today I found myself wondering what would happen if I died. A bit of a grim thing to be daydreaming about, but we’ve all been there.

[sincitysir1]

Ill never die.*splat* aw sh*t I died

[Cam977]

Hahaha, this is a valid point!

[Knight_Crawler]

I think Bruce Willies is suing Apple for this because he want his iTunes account that is worth over a million dollars to go to his daughter once he dies.

[Muffins1223]

Yea...i would too...when i die i would like to pass all my digitally obtained stuff to my son/daughter if they still existed lol...

[Cam977]

Honestly...? Wow, that's ridiculous! Someone clearly has never heard of the internet.

[GribbleGrunger]

No it isn't a valid point. I'm sure that they'll have PSN in heaven or hell! Hell will just have a slower broadband.

[Cam977]

Haha.

[vortis]

I disagreed with you because they would probably ban porn in heaven, but not in hell.

[Chris558]

Np If i die i take my consoles pc and games with me no one can touch those

[GreenRanger]

How do the companies know that you have died?

[Knight_Crawler]

They do not know...when you die you stop using your account and if your the only one who know the password it is lost forever.

The way to avoid this is to give all your details to someone but thats not legal so if you want to complain about something or take the company to court it wont hold because your not the original use of the account.

Since digital download is getting big I think companies should have a section where it gives you the option to put someone down to the owner of the account if anything was to happen to you or you pass away of natural causes or old age.

[hfaze]

Honestly, I would LOVE to see one of the major digital game distributors (SEN, XBL, Nintendo E-Shop, Steam, etc.) to allow users to trade in game licenses or sell/gift game licenses to another user. This would treat downloaded game purchases just like retail game purchases, and allow users to do what they want with their purchases.

The way that digital purchases are handled now is just insane. It is SOOOOO heavily tilted towards the publishers it is not even funny. It's like these companies don't even give a rat's ass about doing what's right for their customers.

The mere existance of GameStop/Electronics Boutique's used game business is proof positive that gamers WANT to be able to trade in older games towards new ones. I guess the big 3 think that the economy is still booming like it's the 90's.

[hkgamer]

I'm pretty sure the writer understood that digital services cannot be passed on. To be honest it is the last thing we would actually care about when we die.

Lets forget about digital services for a while and think of the PS3(well Xbox aswell). A bunc of games actually need PSN or some kind of network capability to work. Skyrim as well as other other PS3 titles needed day1 patching, so in 10-15 years time if people wanteed to purchase a old PS3 and buy these bugged out games they wouldn't even work(well work but play like crap) unless they are patched and if the service or patch update is no longer in service then they are kinda screwed.

Only thing you can actually do is to keep notes of all your usernames and passwords so that when you die or whatever you can let other people access your account.

[vortis]

That's a good point.

There are a TON of games that have no historical value from this day and age. I'm glad you bring up Skyrim because any poor sap who even bothered to play that game 10 years from now will need a crapton of patches just to make it playable and I doubt they'll still be available on XBL/PSN.

[DOMination-]

Bruce Willis is suing Apple isn't he? Because he said he'd give his account to his daughter when he dies and Apple said it's against the terms and conditions because the account is only valid for 'one lifetime'.

[plmkoh]

Terms & conditions are not allowed to take away your rights, they just give the company a precedence to take away your service before a court decides to reverse that or allow it sit should you choose to challenge the company.

The basic premise, to me at least, is that even though they are 'digital' and not physical, they are still assets and as such upon death you should be allowed to transfer ownership. The same concept was challenged in the EU courts where software licences are allowed to be resold as 'second-hand' despite many company T&Cs saying they are only valid for the original holder.

[Jurat]

John McClane's got it covered; as someone who has come so close to death on so many occasions, I can certainly understand his motives. (",)
Die Hard 5 will be called Die Safe.

[Whitefox789]

Uhh actually Die Hard 5 already has a name, "A Good Day to Die Hard." So it might be better for that title to be reserved for Die Hard 6.

[Cueil]

I can understand not wanting to have resale of the content, but not being able to pass it on especially in the event of an untimely death seem rather short sited.

[Whitefox789]

Better get to work on that immortality potion.

[vortis]

Don't worry, I think this is what Gaben is working on right now, because he knows it's gonna take a lot longer than the time he has left to live to finish Half-Life 3.