If you're a public person, your right to publicity survives you—but your right to refuse it is buried along with you. There's an interesting piece on this complicated legal issue in the Times yesterday.

On the one hand, I like the idea of public figures' images entering into the public domain after their deaths. On the other, I favor the idea of heirs being able to control their own family's participation or lack thereof in marketing endeavors.

Like copyright, U.S. law is needlessly murky on the topic—it would take an Einstein™ to figure it out.