No life after death, but plenty of publicity rights

The IPKat was wondering if any of his readers know much about California's recent piece of state legislation on posthumous protection for rights of publicity (Senate Bill No.771, 2007 Cal. Stat. ch 439), which Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signed into law on 10 October. The new law reputedly clarifies that a deceased person’s publicity rights may be passed by will even if that person died before 1 January 1985. Apparently this was once believed to be the law, but had been called into doubt by some recent Federal Court decisions: CMG Worldwide, Inc. v Milton H. Greene Archives LLC, C.D. Cal., No. CV 05-2200 and Shaw Family Archives Ltd. v CMG Worldwide, Inc., 486 F.Supp.2d 309 (S.D.N.Y., May 2, 2007).

Above right: Arnold Schwarzenegger. Below, left, Bela Lugosi, whose post-mortem publicity litigation in California did so much to promote the cause

The idea of not only having posthumous protection but being able to dispose of it after one's death is immensely appealing to the IPKat, but he is surprised that this is something that has more or less got stuck at state level. How come WIPO hasn't seized the initiative and sought to establish minimum levels of protection internationally? Or has he missed something?