IMO the "zomg copyright is too long" can have a point, but it's often disingenuous -- as evidenced by how many of the same organizations and individuals who protest long copyright terms
also heavily criticize short patent terms.
Repeated copyright renewals is just a sneaky way to get more work into the public domain. It imposes more costs on the copyright agencies, it produces more barriers for the authors, and it penalizes anyone who makes an error on the paperwork.
And I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but the practical reality is that Life + 50 is the minimum, and Life + 70 is probably going to end up as the international standard. Despite all the brilliant alternatives on offer, rolling that back is going to require changing a whole lot of treaties, and I see no indication that's going to happen during any of our lifetimes. So y'all might want to get used to it.
