I first posted my concerns about willing a domain name on this blog back in March of 2008, then joked about the subject after I got a funny “Did You Mean “Domain Owner Killed?” Google result.

UPDATE: August 2014

It appears that lawmakers in Delaware have become the first to take bequeathing of digital assets seriously – 6 years after I wondered aloud here what will become of our online accounts, passwords, commentary and even email communications, there have been new developments. Check out the latest here.

back to the archived story …

So a year and a half later, there’s a new service called “Webwill” which purports to will your online persona’s to your choice of beneficiaries. Great idea and a good start – but what about passing legal ownership of an automated online business which produces income every month?

VentureBeat covered WebWill this past week, saying the service is being bootstrapped by the Swedish pair. But honestly, why is nobody thinking of the potential paid market segment of serious business owners and their businesses – even VB?

Content sites create ongoing income from embedded Google Adsense ads and other affiliate links thoughout. How do you legally pass control and the income generated by those sites on to loved ones?

There are Domain Name Registrars, Web Hosts, Google Accounts, Affiliate relationships and banking considerations for what can amount to a comfortable income for a relative or two. What happens to that when someone who controls it dies?

The WebWill concept is a great start – but it needs to be extended to legal considerations of ownership and income for automated internet businesses. Below is a video from the Swedish founders of WebWill. It will be interesting to see if they extend the idea from simplistic coverage of web social identities to real coverage of legal web entities and accounts.