I select 20-30, but for some reason I've often felt 40 years was a sweet spot. Like the old 20+20, but without the need to register. Copyright date + 40 years. New editions treated as new titles.
40 years seems like a fair period to earn royalties off your work - more than twice the time given to patents. A 25 year old author will still be raking it in at 65, and has had 40 years to do as the rest of us workers do (or do not) and put something aside for retirement.
The life+70 nonsense is all about corporate copyrights, which, in my opinion, do the exact opposite of the copyright's intention: to encourage creativity by giving the author an exclusive license to their works for a period of time. The current model discourages creativity since corporations will just keep creating "me too" spinoffs and derivatives of existing work. I mean, really, how many great Disney creations have we seen in the last 20 years that weren't originated by Pixar, a company without an 80 year "vault"?
Not only is Disney sure to try for life+80 in another 10 years, but they've already tried to get perpetual copyright on Mickey Mouse and friends because they are "American Icons."
