Virtual Inheritance: Assigning More Virtual Property Rights

By: Olivia Y. Truong

Abstract

Increasingly, our daily lives revolve around and rely on the Internet and digital world. We will inevitably accumulate some amount of virtual wealth in the form of email accounts, social networking profiles, and even digital replicas (or avatars) of ourselves. As we populate the Internet with traces of our lives, the ugly truth is that none of that virtual wealth really or absolutely belongs to us. This note explores the concept of “virtual inheritance,” or the idea of transferring one’s virtual property rights—a right to which we should be entitled. By revealing how the right to transfer is frustrated in the virtual game world context, this note will bring to light the growing need for a legal framework that would acknowledge an individual’s right to one’s virtual property.

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