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What happens to an itunes account and their downloads when somebody dies

M

macgrl

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Jul 17, 2008
1,192
5
This may seem like an odd question but I have been thinking about this and have done an internet search but can't seem to find an answer.

If a family member (for example) has an itunes account and has lots of songs / tv shows / movies downloaded and associated with their account. What happens to all there itunes downloads on their death. As the downloads are through their account does the account close and all their downloads go with it as you need the account to access itunes to play the downloads? Do you contact apple who change the account details? Can you inherit the downloads.

This may be a bit morbid but it must happen to people and I was curious about what happens.
 
Interesting thought. If it were a CD collection you could imagine everyone fighting over the good stuff, leaving Phil Collins Greatest Hits on the shelf ;)

It must happen, and people must inherit laptops etc. I wonder what Apple's stance is.
 
I was thinking that too, with cds / dvds you just take the ones you want and leave the bad ones LOL but with itunes you need account details to view downloads.

It must happen all the time
 
LOL, I can already imagine someone nearly dying at the hospital, and his child asking what his iTunes password is.
 
in the UK i guess they'd be subject to a grant of probate and transfered to the executors of the deceased's estate
 
Prior to last year the DCEDENT could be redownloaded up to 5 times, now with DRM free, they are free to reincarnate ad infinitum. :D

Seriously - owning DRM free music is akin to owning the single on vinyl. It would fall under the rules of probate if not directly bequeathed to an heir. Now hopefully, for any protected music, the heirs have the account name and password.
 
Do apple allow for an account to be inherited or do they say that it is a breach of copyright?
 
There was actually an aritcle about this (not specific to iTunes) on CNN a couple of weeks ago. There are several companies that have started up that keep track of your online life. Once they have received word of your death, they attempt to contact you several times via e-mail, and if there is no response, all passwords and usernames are released to a pre-designated person. Kind of like a will for your online life.

Interesting new way technology affects our death...
 
Accounts don't close.

There is an article on this recently on news sites.

Some companies started offering digital vault service, where they collect all digital account info with intention of passing onto offspring in the future.
 
The same thing as what happens to your Myspace:

fail-owned-myspace-fail.jpg
 
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