The Business: Yes, You CAN Protect Your Creations Post-Mortem, But It's Pricy

Funster made an attempt.

If you want a summary: Creators have a responsibility to protect the integrity of their work

The problem is that Copyright Law is corpo-driven, specifically driven by the Devil Mouse, and so there is only one way to achieve this objective: to use the tools of the corpo world to build the structure necessary to compel post-mortem execution of this duty of care.

Funster, being typical of men in the hobby, has no idea what that means. Most working in the corpo world don't either, not even in WOTC or Hasbro's C-Suite. Their lawyers do.

The bare minimum is an Offshore Asset Protection Trust based in the Cook Islands, Nevis, or Belize. That Trust then holds a CI or Nevis LLC; this is the operational element at the core of the structure, to which all other elements append as subsidiaries. The premium version is a Private Interest Foundation in Panama or the European Equivalent in Lietchstein, which then has a LLC within it in CI or Nevis. The purpose here is to have rock-solid protection against 1st World civil suits. These are jurisdictions and legal structures that, when properly erected, tell judges to pound sand. Principles are expensive and make enemeies, enemies that use lawfare; this structure stops that cold.

You then want a US (or UK for British or European-based operations) LLC to be the Local Office that actually does the work under contract from the Trust as Work For Hire. The Trust exercises Brand Control over the property under rules that you--as creator--establish in your lifetime, rules that survive your death and become the private law of the Trust thereafter. The canon is closed and the rules carved in stone.

The Trust then owns and enforces Trademarks, registers and renews Copyrights as they can (and enforces them), and if Patents apply those too are filed and enforced. Cook Islanda, Panama, and Liechtenstein all have mature and long-standing reputations for integrity as Trustees- CI's in particular are Licensened and Bonded, so they have real money on the line to incentivize them against doing fuckery.

In short, we can do this. It's just not cheap, easy, or convenient to do so; this structure is $30-50K to set up and about 10% annually to maintain, so it's not worth it to bother unless you've got something that is commercially successful, has been for many years, and could for many more after you're gone. George Lucas should have done this. George Martin should do this. Most in Tabletop? Not even worth trying the Temu version that's entirely domestic (Wyoming LLC held by South Dakota Trust, easily bustable by a US judge if he can hold you or your trustee in Contempt).

That is assuming that you own it. In the case of anything done for TSR or WOTC, you don't; that's Work For Hire, so they own it and as it is their property they can enshitify it if they want to and all you can do about it that means anything is to not buy it and not give any traffic to it.

Is it worth it? I'm going to wear the black hat here: if you can't afford the structure, it's not. Macris can justify doing this. Siembieda can. The Pundit? LOLno, and that goes for most in Tabletop, and quite frankly we're better off because it is so.