[Katsunami]

Post-death length should be shorter.

Arts (music, writing, making movies, photography...) are one of the very few types of work in which an individual can create something, and then profit from that without doing anything else for their entire life.

Theoretically, it's possible for a writer to write one (1) book at the age of 25, and then finding that it hits the book market like a bombshell. It's a hit, and it *stays* a hit: an instant classic, selling and selling and selling, making the writer a 5 million each year. He does not have to work, ever again, and he will be able to support even his children and/or his grandchildren. All by writing ONE book. (For the sake of argument, assume that this could possibly happen.)

While "normal" people would need to keep working to keep income, I could accept that a writer who creates a hit that big, would profit from that until his death.

What I cannot accept is that after his death at (let's say, 85), his heirs will not only inherit a vast amount of money built up over the span of 60 years, but they will also inherit the copyright, for 2, maybe even 3 generations to come.

That the writer and his immediate family (children, etc) can live off of his works, even if it's only one book: OK, fine. It's his work after all. That 1-4 generations after him can live off of the same work is (IMHO) unacceptable, because these people didn't do *anything* to warrant that.

Copyright should be life-time + 5 years or so, to be able to arrange formalities where necessary, to get the book into the public domain.