Being dead isn’t really an impediment to earning lots of money. Celebrities can do very well indeed – this year’s Forbes list of high-earning dead people is topped by Elvis, who earned $40 million in 2003. “Elvis Presley’s estate earns tens of millions of dollars annually, not from music sales–Elvis’ manager famously sold the rights to pre-1973 recordings to RCA (now part of Sony (nyse: SNE – news – people )) for $5 million–but from merchandising and admissions to Graceland.”