What happens when I die?

Tandem

Just wondering now that I have a successful website up and running, not that I plan on checking out anytime soon. I was thinking along the lines of what to tell my wife to do with it once I am gone.

I suppose the first thing she should do is put up the announcement that the old fart finally kicked the bucket, last chance to get your photos printed. :dunno

I'm mostly into high school sports and I don't think my wife would be able to make any meaningful photographic contributions to the site without me. Could she sell the website and the photos already on it? It has a generic name (coloradosprings.smugmug.com) and it is getting around one million picture hits a month so the name should be worth something. Someone could take it over without all the startup work associated with advertising and getting the name out of a new website.

Comments? or ideas? Have you thought about it yourself?

Van Isle

Good question!

:lurk

i_worship_the_King

I think the real question here is if you can transfer ownership of your smugmug account. I don't think you can actually sell your address (colorodo...) because it's not really a domain, but rather a sub-domain of smugmug. If I had to put my money on it I would say that your wife could not sell your site either because it's in your name, and/or because it's merely a subdomain of smugmug.

However. If it's in a business name, and she received control of the business via a will&testament or by default (still legally bound) and smugmug allowed it, you could probably sell the account.

Either way, all of the photos on the site are the intellectual property of the shooter (you, I presume) and if you were to die she would (via w&t again) have full rights to those. Then you're back into the same wagon of if she had full control of the smugmug account (transferrance to her name) than she could keep selling your photos in your stead.

Worst case scenario, you lose the smugmug account (no transferrance) and the smugmug CS reps resell the name back to your wife in her name when payment became due again (giving her first dibs) and she could put your (now her) property on it and sell it however she wishes.

Just my best guess, anyway.

Tandem

Good points. The worst case would be if she did nothing and kept getting checks in my name until the credit card used for the yearly payment was refused. I wonder how long I can keep making money when I'm dead.

i_worship_the_King

I just hope to make a dollar before I die...

Angelo

Tandem wrote:

I wonder how long I can keep making money when I'm dead.

70 years, relative to copyrighted works.