Quote:
Originally Posted by HansTWN
The author created the resource, not nature or society.
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But that is my point, society partly DID create the resource, because the author invariably draws on common culture in the creation of their work. It is impossible to create a completely original work that draws on nothing else. Even the structure of the novel itself as an art form comes from the public domain. Society does have a stake in that new authors are producing.
However, you are right that the new work would not exist without the author. That is why the author gets exclusive exploitation of it for a time. But after that time has passed, the work should return to the public domain so that others can benefit from it as the author benefited from the work of others.
As for the author's heirs, as it has been pointed out already, they have ample opportunity to benefit. Since in most countries, copyright exceeds the author's death, they have exclusive rights to the work for 50-75 years. And then after that, they can create new derivative works or other items as they wish. They no longer have *exclusive* rights---others can then create works too---but the right to do so remains for them.