Quote:
Originally Posted by HarryT
Because writing a book is like building a house for the purposes of rent: the income from it only starts after the "work" is complete. If you own a house that you rent out, should it be confiscated by the state when you die, so that your dependants and heirs no longer receive the rental income?
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Agreed, and I think copyright should extend past the life of the author. But life plus SEVENTY years is, IMHO, way too long. Even the value of many houses or commercial buildings will be much reduced or gone after 70 years. Granted I live in California, which doesn't have an old housing base to start with, but there aren't many 70 year old houses in my area that haven't been knocked down and rebuilt, or at least remodeled out of all recognition, often at costs similar to the original investment.
Life plus 20 or 30 years seems much more reasonable to me. Then the author and their immediate family (the ones who probably suffered with them
) get benefits, but not the grandchildren, or even great-grandchildren, who were just lucky enough to pick a famous author for an ancestor. And even with a shorter copyright period, the heirs would still get the benefit of all the money that accrued during the copyright period, just not an ongoing income stream after all that time.