Quote:
Originally Posted by Kali Yuga
David Foster Wallace was 46 when he committed suicide. Under different circumstances, he could have stayed alive for another 35-40 years. His best-selling book, Infinite Jest, was only out for 12 years before he died.
Should his family not receive any benefit from his works after his death?
Should every work he wrote go into public domain at the moment of his early demise?
Should his family not get anything for any posthumous work the estate chooses to publish? Even if the estate had to hire someone to put it together, edit and market it?
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Of course, after 12 years, I suspect that his book had already made 90% of what it would ever make. If it was a less popular book, maybe 99%.
All of this is a bit of a red herring. One can always find a circumstance where a work where an exception should be made. Ultimately, whether copyright ends with death, a fixed period, or death + a fixed period, it needs to ultimately end so that other authors can use it to make the next set of great works.
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Bill