Recently, I read an article about a woman whose husband had died. She tried to access their joint banking and investment accounts on his computer but did not have the passwords. When she requested passwords while on her own computer - she was asked for her husband's will - giving her legal access. Can anyone tell me whether this story is accurate or apocryphal? If I want to leave my Reunion program (and other apps) to a friend - must I write that into my will or can it be included in an instruction letter to my executor? I did ask my (older) Lawyer - he had no idea what I was asking. Thank you!
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Re: My will and Reunion
It's well beyond the scope of this forum to provide specific legal advice and guidance and you should always refer to the specific Terms and Conditions of use in the Software Licence Agreement(s) for your software.
However, in very general terms, my understanding is you can't normally transfer the 'ownership' of commercial software to any other individual as you never actually own that software. Ownership always remains with the developer; and what you purchase is a the media, i.e. a disc or a downloaded installation file; plus a personal license to use the software under a range of very specific terms and conditions, which commonly precludes the transfer of the license to any third party unless the developer specifically agrees to the transfer, i.e. the person who originally registers the software enters into a contract of use with the software developer(s) which cannot, by definition, continue beyond that user's demise.
The data you have accumulated and recorded in your Family History software is, of course, yours to do with what you wish.
As far as the quoted story is concerned, it wouldn't surprise me at all if the general basis of the story was accurate, i.e. With Joint Bank Accounts there are usually specific terms and conditions in place which state whether both parties can access the account and authorise transactions solely, whether there are specific limitations on the transactions that can be authorised by only one of the parties; and under what circumstances both parties are required to give authority for transactions to take place. And, of course, what happens if/when one of the parties is incapacitated or dies. How was the Bank to know if what they were being told was accurate, especially if the communication was electronic, if it hadn't been provided with the correct documentary evidence?
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