I try to keep an up to date audit of hardware and software and serial numbers and etc etc, with whatever I know about getting control of those when I die.

This is mentioned in my will.

It would be nice if there was an industry wide standard for "What to do when someone dies" - this will vary by country but it'll be something like "When you're granted probate and have the document send an official copy to this address, with this other information, and we'll unlock the devices for you to re-use or sell on; or we'll transfer the digital media to a new account[1]".

I'm thinking of scripting something so that if I die someone in my family can run a simple program that will provide death announcements to all my various online accounts. (This is obviously scary if it runs prematurely and announces my death when I'm not, er, dead.)

All of this is in the context of a private individual. I have no idea what the legal ramifications are if you're part of a business. But surely "What happens if Bob is hit by a bus" is part of any company's disaster planning?[2]

[1] obviously they wont. When you die all those ebooks and mp3s and films are gone, and it's a criminal offence to remove the DRM to be able to pass on that content to your children.

[2] Just like "we make proper backups all the time AND we have tested those backups" is. ho ho ho.