If you build a house....50 years later nobody comes along and says “this house now belongs to the public”.
If you sell the house and put the money in the bank. It stays your money and your kids inherit it.
If you open a restaurant...and you work in the business all your life...it doesn’t become “the public’s restaurant” when you die. You can sell the restaurant...or your kids can keep the restaurant going.
If you are a farmer....the fields don’t go to the public just because you retire from farming. You have all the crops you previously harvested...and the land is there to grow future crops that your kids farm...or they sell the farm.
If a book/story still has economic value...why shouldn’t the copyright holder continue to benefit? The public did nothing to create the work so why should they confiscate the economic value from the heirs or the owner?
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