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Personally, I think the US had the right answer pre-1978. 28 + 28 or 56 years max.
Why? Look at all the art that was created under that regime in the US. The Golden Age of Hollywood...The Pulp Era....All the music (popular and otherwise)...Books (make your own list)...Television shows....Radio Shows....Plays...
Nobody said - Gee, I'm not going to create a book/movie/song/play/radio show because my great grandchildern aren't going to be collecting money off of them 100 years from now. Or if I do, I'm giong to decamp to a nation with a longer copyright law. Didn't happen.
Only when Hollywood realized that it's sound pictures might start falling into the public domain, has there been a hue and cry about lengthing copyright. And please note - the Life + X portion was a smoke screen for the real copyright extension - stretching those already existing copyrights over and over again. Things that should have fallen into the public domain under either life plus 50 or 70 still aren't in the public domain yet, and if Hollywood has it's say, never will (no perpertual copyright, just perpetual extensions)
Example, Zane Grey. He died in 1939, in life + 50, he went PD in 1990, and in life + 70, he went PD in 2010. However, all post 1923 works are still under copyright in the US, due to the continual extension of existing copyright. Life + X doesn't count under the copyright extension regime in the US. All to save big Hollywood corporations right to milk their back castalog...
Had the copyright extension not been applied retroactively, everthing created before 1957 would be public domain. Nobody would have been cheated, as all that art was made under those copyright rules, voluntarily, to begin with. Make you own list of PD art you could enjoy.
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