Quote:
Originally Posted by lazyreadr
I personally do not see why the copyright on books should be much longer than patent protection, for which usually a lot more needs to be invested, so 25 years after publishing should be reasonable.
The much longer existing periods are mainly a lobby success of publishing industry. Rarely helps the author, who sells it off when he signs the contract.
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One big reason I see is the way media interacts with books. If copyrights expired after 20-25 years, the only incentive for moviemakers to compensate authors would be to get a jump on other moviemakers. Why pay money for Ready Player One, Starship Troopers, or Harry Potter if you can just wait a few years and do it anyways? The movie industry will make 100s of millions of dollars off of the books, and the authors would see essentially nothing.