On The Digital Inheritance

Digital heritage refers to all the network interests and property that the decedent left after his death. Digital heritage appears when Internet is increasingly important in human life and become a personal digital archive center, it including personal Web Albums, documents, letters, videos and other forms. With the popularity of the Internet, the online world has extended to the interest of social reality. With the appearance of the digital property, the rate of accumulation and form of property breaks through the traditions. If people understand the meaning of property without reality, the digital heritage which is produced in21st Century Network Technology will blank in the area of legal. Take the amendment of Succession Act as an opportunity, this paper argues that the digital heritage should be incorporated into the scope of inheritance in the basis of analyze the property of digital heritage.Base on analysing the legitimacy of digital inheritance, this paper will reinterpretation of the concept of "property" in Civil Law and identified that the digital heritage can be included in the scope of inheritance. According to the different doctrines on the properties of the digital heritage, the paper considers that different types of digital heritage have different properties and attributions. And it will also be classified the digital heritage into two sorts:one contains obvious property attributes; the other combines with property and personal attributes. On the basis of learning various digital inheritance legislation and practical experiences, we can look for the Legal model of digital heritage, to make up the defects of network heritage hosting mode and to solve the digital inheritance disputes as much as possible. The legislation should make specific provisions in terms of type, subject, procedure, heritage segmentation process of digital heritage. Train network users to set up the awareness of testamentary disposition digital heritage. Encourage network operators’ technological innovation in the processing of the digital heritage.