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Having copyright last longer than the life of the author only benefits one person... the publisher. Considering the fairly recent fiasco between John Steinbeck's family and Penguin books, it is clear that the publisher nor the terms of copyright ever have the continuing family in mind. Authors never know what kind of sales they will do nor what kind of impact their writings will have, and in the case of Steinbeck, his books should be free to have, learn from, and enjoy. Publishers are just greedy and I am sure that they had a lot to do with the current law on copyright. However, during an authors life time, I think it is his right as the artist and creator to sap every penny he or she can out of what they created. As far as the authors descendants are concerned, if the author was successful, then they will happily inherit their estate, if the author was not then having the copyright wouldn't benefit them anyway. Besides they weren't the ones who wrote the book so they don't deserve the copyright anyway.
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