Memento mori,% username%!

In the old song is sung:
After us in this world
A couple of faxes remain
And a page on the Internet ...
(Vitaly Kalashnikov, bards.ru)

Today we will talk about such a fun side of human existence, as the departure of man from life. In itself, the tragic, this event gives rise to a lot of legal consequences: from the termination of various obligations to the transfer of ownership of the property, which the deceased had during his lifetime, his legitimate heirs.

It would seem that inheritance issues are so trivial, and everything connected with them is so scrupulously regulated by current legislation that the need for discussion on the topic of posthumous transfer of rights may seem highly questionable. But this is only at first glance.

Think about it: what is the difference between the property complex of a modern person and the property of his great-grandfather? Our contemporaries have a mass of property in digital form: websites, accounts, license keys, and more. And if juridical science has long since figured out what has come to us from the forefathers, and everything seems to be clear about the inheritance of material values, then the most interesting, but no less unpleasant, problems can arise with virtual property. .
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Unfortunately, the legislative base (not to mention the practice of law enforcement) seriously lags behind the technical progress, so some procedures that are very necessary today have simply not been developed yet.

The main source of headache was and remains the inheritance of domain names. Note that this does not apply to corporate domains, we are talking about domain names registered by citizens. The essence of the problem is in the absence of a mechanism for direct inheritance of domain names, which is simply not provided for by Russian law. The fact is that the registration of a domain name is produced under a service agreement, and those are not included in the estate (for more information, see the website of the Coordination Center of the national domain of the Internet).

The same difficulties, by the way, may arise with the transfer of rights to hosting services, but in this case at least it is possible to get access to scripts and content if you have a password to your account (we will touch on the transfer of passwords below), which makes it possible to transfer the site to another account or to another provider. This will not affect the availability of the site for visitors. The domain name is a unique address where the site is available on the network, and losing it could mean the death of the entire project.

The only thing so far absolutely reliable option to transfer the site by inheritance is the registration of a domain name and the conclusion of a contract for the provision of hosting services for a legal entity. All other options imply a certain risk of losing it.

Another kind of problem is the moral and ethical side of keeping accounts on publicly available resources like blog hosting sites and social networks. Obviously, after a certain period of time, these services will be filled with user accounts that will never be added to someone’s friend list or written to the blog. And it is completely incomprehensible how to deal with accounts of dead users: delete, block, close to view by unauthorized people? Who, how and on what basis to transfer their management?

Probably, it is time for mass resources to add the “user died” checkbox to the user profile interface, blocking any actions with the account. But who to trust to put this box? Require a death certificate to provide access to someone's personal blog? So excuse me, the user did not present at registration of the passport, it is impossible to identify it! And well, if this is a personal blog, and if the person was the administrator of a large community, the functioning of which is now under threat?

Thus, the issue of posthumous transfer of passwords is becoming increasingly important. Immediately it should be noted that in life hardly anyone will give a piece of paper with passwords to another person. This information is often not trusted to anyone, but irretrievably lost, it also should not be. To solve this problem, many services appeared on the Internet offering the “electronic testament” service: the user saves all the necessary information, indicates his address and the address of the assignee, after which he will only have to periodically reply to letters confirming that he is still alive. If you have not responded to several letters in a row, the information will be sent to the heir.

The solution seems to be fairly obvious, but it also carries a lot of pitfalls. Firstly, it is impossible to insure against false triggering of the system. Secondly, the user trusts the system with extremely confidential information, without receiving any guarantees in return! And even if the owners of the service are respectable people, their website may well be hacked with all the ensuing consequences. But we also want the passwords to be transferred to the right hands at the right time, and before that no one could use them!

It is not so difficult: combining existing methods of making wills and modern methods of information protection, it is technically possible to pass on passwords and similar confidential information by inheritance.

For example, citizen N creates a list of passwords and (optionally) instructions to whom to transfer them, and encrypts it with a public key, which is always available for him in case there is a need to make changes to the file. This file can be stored anywhere: at least in the system of "electronic wills", even on the citizen's desktop - if only the heirs could get unhindered access to it. And the key needed to restore information is stored in a closed will , and becomes known to heirs only after N.'s death.

Not the easiest solution? Maybe! However, it assumes a fairly high probability of transmitting information to the very people to whom it is addressed - and to no one else.

What is the result? It is quite possible to implement the inheritance of passwords to accounts, websites, computers and networks, bank accounts, etc., as well as sites in general, including domain names, within the framework of existing legal mechanisms and technological capabilities. However, this is associated with certain difficulties and requires the involvement of time and financial resources. Is it worth it? Of course, everyone has to decide for himself. At least, until another is created - a convenient, reliable and transparent tool for these very purposes.

Live long and do not get sick!

Related Links:

• A new look at the tragic history - inspired topic.
• Part 3 of the Civil Code, which regulates inheritance and inheritance.
• Official comments of the Coordination Center of the national domain of the Internet regarding domain name inheritance.