When I mentioned the carpenter who builds a house not retaining rights to it I was using that to illustrate my thoughts, not as proof of anything. Of course physical property is different. It exists. Intellectual property sort of exists and sort of doesn't.
If I write a book I can copyright it and that gives me a chance to make some money on it before everybody else starts printing and selling it. That's what the Constitution intends. It gives the creator a head start. But it's a very limited head start. I can't copyright every word or even every sentence.
Ownership of intellectual property is a mental construct, entirely artificial, that we've chosen to build into our laws because it's good for us, both individually and as a culture. After while it stops being good for the culture and, with rare exceptions, to the creator. Putting books into public domain much earlier than we do will be a cultural benefit.
What we lose by doing that is income for the tiny fraction of books that continue to make money after a year or two.
If I were king I would set the copyright term to 5 years for books. It's a rare book that keeps making money after that. And maybe, with the advent of ebooks and the long tail, 10 years would be better. Not that I want to be king. I'm far too lazy.
Barry