That's how Anthony Falzone, Executive Director of Stanford's Fair Use Project, describes the Marilyn Monroe opinion discussed earlier here and here:
"Is this a big deal? You bet. Licensing dead celebrities is a multi-million dollar business. But California ... only passed the statute creating post-mortem publicity rights in 1984. Lots of the hottest dead celebrities (licensing-wise) died long before that, and millions of licensing revenue stands to disappear under this decision. The beneficiaries of this windfall will not let that money go without a fight. So I expect to hear a lot more about this issue."
