Inheriting Social Media Accounts: Russian and Foreign Experience

Abstract

Due to the development of computer technologies and the use of social networks not only for personal, but also for commercial purposes, the need for legal regulation of relations as to the use of creative work results posted in social networks, as well as issues of inheritance of these results following the death of the account author, has increased. Judicial practice has already seen cases of legal disputes regarding social networks; abroad, separate legal approaches are being developed to determine the legal nature of social media accounts and to consider the results of creative work that are posted on such accounts. In the paper, the author analyzes Russian and foreign experience and makes a conclusion about the way the inheritance of accounts is regulated in domestic and foreign judicial practice. The author analyzes the legal regulation of relations regarding social media accounts and issues of their inheritance, taking into account the creation of a new virtual reality, and reveals possible ways of legal protection of the results of creative work created using virtual and augmented reality technologies.