Herança digital à luz do caso III ZR 183/17 do bundesgerichtshof: a exploração econômica post mortem de perfis em redes sociais

Abstract

The constant transformations in the way individuals interact with technology bring enormous challenges to contemporary law, which does not always have solutions for the new dilemmas that have arisen in the digital era. One of these dilemmas concerns the transmission of digital heritage, especially regarding the transmission of assets with both patrimonial and existential content, as is the case with social networks when used for economic purposes. This is because there is no legislation in Brazil regulating the matter or consolidated jurisprudential understanding on the subject. Despite this, when faced with situations like these, Brazilian law often uses comparative law to seek solutions to conflicts arising from the gaps created by unbridled digital development. In this sense, the present work had the general objective of investigating the legal feasibility of the economic use of social media profiles of deceased people by their heirs in light of the paradigm of the leading case III ZR 183/17 of the Bundesgerichtshof (BGH), the highest Court of the ordinary German judicial system. As the methodology used during the research, the hypothetical-deductive approach method was applied, as well as the monographic and comparative procedure methods and the indirect documentation research technique, both documentary and bibliographic. It was concluded that, through the principles and legislation already existing in Brazilian law, the aforementioned economic use by heirs is legally viable, according to the paradigmatic foundation of the German BGH.