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The problem with the present copyright system is that very often, in terms of individual lifetimes, copyright might just as well be eternal. Take an example we've been talking about in another thread - L. Sprague de Camp's SF classic "Lest Darkness Fall". It was written in 1939, but Mr. de Camp only died in 2000, so the book won't enter the public domain for most of us until 1st Jan 2071 - that's a copyright term of 132 years! I almost certainly won't live to see that book enter the public domain, even though it was written decades before I was born.
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