Former Rep. Ryan Kiesel was listening to NPR one day when he heard a piece on the difficulty families were having gaining control of their loved ones' Facebook pages after they passed away. Believing that "someone needs to have legal access to their accounts" Kiesel sponsored a new law in Oklahoma that attempts to treat Facebook and other digital assets as part of a will.

The bill, which took effect just under six weeks ago, is the first of its kind in the US. It mandates that the executor of the estate has the authority to "take control of, conduct, continue, or terminate any accounts...on any social networking ... microblogging ... or email services websites". Yes, that's right, it claims to let executors take over your social media presence. This is based on the idea that such digital memories are the property of the creator to bequeath and mixes with copyright, contract and estate law.

However terms of service on most social media sites like Facebook conflict with the new law. Most allow the service provider to establish their own process when a user passes away. Facebook has established its own particular process (you can read about it here). In this context, Oklahoman law is unlikely to trump contract law - Mark R. Gillett, associate dean at the University of Oklahoma Law School, said the law won't override the terms of service agreements.

The real answer seems unlikely to be found in legislation but rather in new services. Passwords for sites like Facebook can already be passed to next of kin (in spite of Facebook's terms of service). However the real desire that people have is not to let someone take over their account and continue their twitter feed but rather to preserve their memory. This was why we started 1000Memories and why we have built a Facebook importer that lets you import a friend's photos from Facebook to protect them forever (see here). You can pick which photos you want to last forever and family and friends can view them in a warm, appropriate (advert-free) context. Ultimately we would like to help people protect all their digital assets by letting their family and friends curate them in a beautiful and appropriate site. Letting your digital legacy last forever doesn't require a new law, it's already here at 1000Memories.

Footnotes

1. Read the News OK report on the new law here