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Ugh. I just do not see a reason for people to write using characters and world some other author invented. Ever. You want to write about trolls or witches or a taking mouse...you can already do that. Terry Brooks are better for NOT using Tolkien’s actual world and character names. His first couple of books were outright theft as it is (opinion folks, not a statement of actual law).
We already have libraries where the poor can read books for free. I just don’t see why anybody else should be making money from Walt Disney's work, or Marry Shelley's work, or Dickens work than their descendants. Or in the case of the digital world we live in...nobody will make money from those works.
And how foolish would an author be to write in an post copyright universe of post copyright characters? You wouldn’t own your own work. Or rather, you’d have to compete with everyone else writing with those same characters.
I understand why patents exist. Only you can make a widget you patent for a certain number of years. Then society gets to benefit from the common knowledge of your widget. But there aren’t an infinite number of ways to make a light bulb. There are no limits to telling a new story
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