"Copyright offers post mortem protection," he said, but that protection eventually expires.

Current copyright laws actually promotes publication and reuse, according to McCallig. Eventually the deceased's emails, private journals or blogs, and private and direct messages on social media will be copyright free and in the possession of service providers such as Google, Yahoo, Twitter and Facebook if they still exist in the future, he said.

"Maybe you should have a time limit that automatically deletes data after a certain time," he said, adding that at the moment there is no comprehensive legal solution to regulate what should happen to someone's online data after he dies.

While copyright might offer some protection and can function as a surrogate regulation of digital remains, further research is needed to come up with a regulatory regime for online life after death, said McCallig.