An individual may inherit rights to a work without possessing the server password. One may access an account without being authorised to exploit its files. In digital art, 'inheriting' encompasses issues from distinct regimes.
Five layers that must not be conflated
An estate may contain rights, media and equipment, files and versions, accounts and domains, personal data, contracts and assets. Transferring one layer does not entail the others.
What Article 3 of the LOPDGDD regulates
Article 3 allows certain linked persons, heirs and designees to request access to, rectification of or erasure of personal data of a deceased person, with limitations. It regulates personal data; it does not transfer copyright, equipment, domains, certificates or assets.
What Article 96 regulates
Article 96 addresses access to content managed by service providers and decisions regarding the maintenance or deletion of profiles and content. It is not a comprehensive digital will: it does not, of itself, order rights, civil inheritance, media or licences.
Art360: preparing the archive with the living artist
Art360 Foundation advises artists and estates on archives and legacies. Its programme has operated since 2016 and, as of the date of the cited page, had assisted 46 artists and estates. Support may last up to eighteen months and include conservation, digitisation, databases, inventory, legal advice, photography, valuation and web.
The archive is also a decision of authorship
Organising during one's lifetime allows for decisions regarding what constitutes a work and what constitutes evidence, which versions are preserved, what remains restricted, what may be published and who may continue the work.
The scale and limitations of support
A small team cannot meet all demand and must prioritise. Art360 should not be presented as a solution available to every artist nor as a permanent guarantee.
CARTA: preserving what lives on the web
Since 2018, CARTA has brought together libraries, museums and organisations with the Internet Archive. In September 2025, more than forty institutions were reported. The programme identifies at-risk web art content, captures sites and offers common access.
It does not necessarily preserve the complete executable work; it preserves web resources related to artists, galleries, criticism and contemporary practice.
Preserving context is not equivalent to preserving the work
A capture may fail regarding databases, authentication or complex interaction. Even so, it may preserve exhibitions, biographies, texts and institutional relationships.
Two models of continuity
Art360 organises and plans in close proximity to artists and estates. CARTA captures web resources on a collective scale. One does not replace the other.
What remains undocumented
No sufficient primary source has been located regarding a work lost after an artist's death solely due to a lack of password, account or domain. The article should not open with an unproven exemplary tragedy.
Preparing access without publishing secrets
A plan must indicate that credentials exist and where they are held, without incorporating them into the public inventory. It is advisable to separate the catalogue, technical inventory, contracts, data, secrets and succession instructions.
What precedents fail to demonstrate
They do not demonstrate that an institution will accept any archive, that a capture will preserve every interaction, or that data legislation will resolve artistic succession.
To take action
The guide Artist Archive and Estate addresses general planning. If a work depends on a platform, consult what to do when the platform closes. In the Notebook, invisible dependencies in digital art addresses accounts, domains and services; inventorying digital art proposes how to register components and locations; and acquiring digital art explains what should be included in a collection.
About the open conversation
It remains to be determined which portion of an estate is typically left unprepared: rights, archives, versions, accounts, domains, credentials, contracts, or technical capacity. Which of these may be delegated in advance, and which can only be resolved by a specific individual?
Accessing an account does not resolve artistic succession, and the cases reviewed do not permit the establishment of a procedure valid for all estates.
If you work with artists, families, archives, or institutions and are able to share procedures or documented cases, this notebook remains open: write to me. Personal data is not required; a description that respects privacy and confidentiality is sufficient.