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85 Tul. L. Rev. 717 (2010-2011)

handle is hein.journals/tulr85 and id is 723 raw text is: Classifying Virtual Property in Community Property Regimes: Are My Facebook Friends Considered Earnings, Profits, Increases in Value, or Goodwill? Sally Brown Richardson* Virtual property or that property which exists only in the intangible world of cyberspace, is ofgrowmg inportance MAllions ofpeople use virual property every day be it an e-mail account, a blog, or a Facebook profile; billions of dollars are spent to acquire vrtual property As the importance of virtual pmperty coninues to increase atlght year speed laws pertaiung to vrtual property must similarly develop. Among the legal issues yet unaddrssed is how community property regimes will respond to vrtual community (or itual separate) property Spouses am on the bnnk of litigating issues such as whether a Umform Resource Locator (URL) is community or sepaate property whether a website generates an increase in separate property whether e-mail contacts are profits, and whether Facebook Eiends create goodwill Community property jurisdictions must be prepared to quickly adapt to the reality of vitual property if they wish to avoid being lost in cyberspace To aid couts m the impendng task of considenng virtual property in a community property setting, this Article examines how different forms of vitual property should be classified in community property egHnes. Alter explaining the classification scheme within community propertyuinsdictions, the Article details examples of virtual property likely to be present in modem couples'lives, and considers how these identified examples of vitual pmperty should be classiied I. INTRODUCTION........... ............... ....718 II. CLASSIFYING COMMUNITY PROPERTY .......... ........722 A. Types of Community Property............. .................724 1. Earnings and Profits ........ ..............725 2. Profits of Separate Property .......... .....728 3. Increases in the Value of Property...............730 4. Goodwill .................... ...........734 B. ContractualLiabiities.. .......................737 C Intellectual Property and Community Property...............742 III. CHARACTERIZING VIRTUAL PROPERTY .....................747 A. Vftual Property Defined by Descipdtions ..... .....747 B. Examples of Vitual Property ..................749 1. URLs (and Domain Names) .......... .....749 * 0 2011 Sally Brown Richardson. Associate at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom. J.D./D.C.L., Louisiana State University; B.A., Georgetown University. The author thanks Andrea B. Carroll, Cynthia A. Samuel, and J.-R. Trahan for their comments on earlier drafts. All views and any errors herein are solely attributable to the author. 717

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