Here’s a question: What happens to eBook collections when the user dies? I’ve asked this a couple of times over on Twitter, but nobody seems to know.

Avid readers (or bibliophiles, or bibliomaniacs) can accumulate quite a collection of books over a lifetime. They’re sometimes dealt with separately in a will, sometimes fought over by descendants, and sometimes sold off as a job lot before the earth has settled on the grave.

Of course, digital files don’t have quite the cachet of a room full of battered and loved books. It’s hard to imagine handing somebody a reading device with the words, “See those eBook files? My great-grandfather downloaded those.” Still, a lifetime’s collection of eBooks will represent a significant investment, both financially and in terms of the way the user spent his or her life.

So is it even possible to will such a collection on? Can eBook licenses be transferred on death, or does death effectively terminate the license, rendering the deceased’s entire collection of digital books essentially (in legal terms) unusable?

Does anybody know?

Edit: I suspect the answer is the obvious one: that eBook licenses aren’t transferable, so the right to use them dies with the original purchaser. So I’ll expand the question: what happens, and what should happen?