Elvis Presley earned $52 million from October 2007 to October 2008, which is not bad for a man who has been dead for 31 years. “Peanuts” cartoonist Charles M. Schultz, who died in 2000, and recently deceased actor Heath Ledger earned $33 million and $20 million respectively since their deaths according to a Forbes list of Top-Earning Dead Celebrities.

Ever stop to wonder who exactly is living the good life from the profits of these dead celebrities?

The right to privacy, according to Don R. Pember and Clay Calvert, authors of Mass Media Law, is defined with four areas. The first is appropriation of name or likeness for trade purposes, second is intrusion upon an individual’s solitude, third is publication of private information about an individual and finally, publishing material that puts an individual in a false light. Privacy laws vary in some states, as some use statutes to protect the law.

Unfortunately, for someone like Albert Einstein, who earned $18 million between October 2007 and October 2008, partially due to Disney’s Baby Einstein line of learning tools for infants, the right to privacy dies along with the individual. The rights designed to protect an individual in life no longer apply after death, even if the person’s name or likeness continues to be used.

However, the right to publicity may continue.

“Right of publicity [is] an offshoot of privacy law that protects the right of persons to capitalize on their fame or notoriety for commercial or advertising purposes,” according to Pember and Calvert.

The right to publicity stems back approximately 50 years compared to the right to privacy, which goes back closer to 100 years. Pember and Calvert credit the development and increase in cases about the right to publicity to “the so-called celebrification of the nation.” The public’s increasing interest in celebrities has created a larger market for stories and pictures about entertainers, musicians, sports stars and others, whether alive or dead.