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It's a real loss to culture for copyright owners to sit on works until they are lost forever, and this is a bigger issue the longer the copyright period is. Once a copyright expires, people can take the original work and remake it, rerelease it or transform it as they see fit, preserving the work and creating new and interesting works based on the source material.
Here's a somewhat ironic example, the following Disney characters and works were based on public domain source material:
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
Sleeping Beauty
Alice in Wonderland
The Little Mermaid
Beauty and the Beast
Pinocchio
Robin Hood
Peter Pan
Winnie the Pooh
The Hunchback of Notre Dame
Tarzan
The Prince and the Pauper
Cinderella
Mulan
The Jungle Book
Aladdin
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