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Just realised this is a more appropriate thread than "Free Culture..."
I must confess to a certain ambivalence about the copywright situation.
I too want to read every book for free, but no income = no (professional) writers, for a start (apart from committed souls in a garrett, naturally) which would be a, well, difficult state of affairs.
I would like to be able to see no reason why the rights to income from a book, fiction or non, should extend beyond the life of the creator.
But we then are confonted by the argument that the writer's estate, i.e. family, or trust, should continue to profit - in the very same way as a building's rent, a painting's reproduction, performances of a play, a new plant, a medical breakthrough, an inventor's patent........
When I look at that lot, I find it very difficult to say that the written word, in book/novel form, is any different.
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