# Law/Governance Gap Sketch — Spirit & Ghost (Phase V)

**Workplan:** SOUL-WP-0006-T03  
**Date:** 2026-08-12  
**Method:** Map Soul Frame concepts → existing legal categories → **gaps**.  
**Non-goal:** Derive legal rights or moral status from philosophical terminology.
No jurisdiction-specific legal advice.

---

## 1. Mapping table

| Soul Frame concept | Nearby legal / regulatory categories | Fit | Gaps / tensions |
|---|---|---|---|
| **Being** (descriptive) | legal person; natural person | poor/direct | Legal personality is fiat/status; not Beinghood v0.2 |
| **APE** | product, service, software agent | partial | No unified “person-like AI” status |
| **Actor** | model provider, hoster, deployer roles | good | Liability stacks across Actor layers |
| **Persona** | branding, avatar, account identity | partial | Account ≠ person; impersonation doctrines |
| **Spirit (`Sp.`)** | publicity / personality rights; copyright (corpus); trademark; moral rights (some jurisdictions); parody/fair use (varies) | partial | Public-figure speech vs commercial Sp.; deceased personality rights vary widely |
| **Ghost (`Gh.`)** | consent; data protection; estates/inheritance; fiduciary duties; posthumous privacy (uneven); medical/genetic data special regimes | partial | Few statutes for “authorized posthumous agent”; platform ToS dominate |
| **Authority / custodian** | agent/principal; executor; attorney-in-fact; data controller/processor | partial | No standard Gh. custodianship instrument |
| **Provenance** | evidence law; audit; digital signatures; record-keeping | partial | Provenance ≠ identity in law either |
| **False Ghost / usurpation** | impersonation; fraud; right of publicity; deepfake bills (emerging); identity theft (stretch) | partial | Coverage uneven; technical fidelity outruns doctrine |
| **Disclosure rules** | privacy, confidentiality, professional secrecy | partial | Relationship-specific AI disclosure rarely specified |
| **Soul / legacy** | estate assets; moral rights; reputation torts; digital assets | weak | Relational/reputational “Soul” not a legal object |
| **Recognition (social)** | no direct analogue | — | Social Beinghood ≠ legal recognition |
| **Fork of Gh.** | property copies; license scope; data subject rights | weak | Which instance is authorized? |

---

## 2. Sp.-specific legal clusters

1. **Right of publicity / personality rights** — commercial use of name/likeness/voice  
2. **Copyright** — training/use of works; output similarity  
3. **Moral rights** (where recognized) — attribution, integrity of work  
4. **Defamation / false light** — Sp. saying what source would not  
5. **Consumer protection** — disclosing synthetic / `Sp.` nature  

**Gap:** Clear safe-harbor design pattern for labeled non-identity historical Sp.
with transparent provenance.

---

## 3. Gh.-specific legal clusters

1. **Consent and capacity** — ante-mortem authorization instruments  
2. **Data protection** — personal data of deceased (jurisdiction-dependent; many regimes weaken after death)  
3. **Estates and digital assets** — access to accounts, messages, photos  
4. **Fiduciary / custodial duties** — loyalty, purpose limitation, conflict  
5. **Posthumous privacy and dignity** — patchwork  
6. **Medical / intimate data** — heightened duties  
7. **Platform terms** — currently primary “governance” in practice  

**Gap:** Portable **Ghost governance charter** recognized across platforms;
default rules when no consent instrument exists (usually: **no Gh.**, only possible Sp. from public data — still ethics-bound).

---

## 4. Recommended research stance

```text
Soul Frame label  →  clarifies design intent and provenance
Legal outcome     →  independent mapping exercise per jurisdiction
Never             →  "is Gh." implies "has rights of the deceased"
```

H10 (authority for Gh.) is a **Soul Frame legitimacy** criterion that **aligns with**
but is **not identical to** legal authorization.

---

## 5. Design artifacts that would reduce gaps (non-legal)

| Artifact | Purpose |
|---|---|
| `Sp.` provenance manifest | sources, exclusions, fidelity claims |
| `Gh.` governance charter | principal, custodian, scope, revocation |
| Disclosure UX standard | always surface Sp./Gh. designation |
| Fork/instance registry | which runtimes are authorized |
| Relational ACL model | who may hear what |

---

## 6. Sources (orientation)

- Personality/publicity rights surveys (jurisdiction-specific treatises)  
- Data protection regimes on deceased persons (varies)  
- Digital estate / digital remains scholarship  
- Spitale & Germani digital ghost ethics; Lei et al. AI afterlife expectations  
- Deepfake / synthetic media regulation landscape (fast-moving)  
- Phase V Soul Frame maps (this workstream)

**Status:** sketch for synthesis and later WS12 deepening — not legal conclusions.