[K-Thom]

Couldn't most of you just be honest to yourselves and tell what's really bugging you?

You want to use something which is not yours. For free. Now. Period.

The discussion about the length of copyright is irrelevant, because any length will be "too long" for some (if not many).
If the 70+ years were to be reduced to 25+ I bet this discussion still will go on. "Ahhh, 25 years, why, the author's long dead, it all belongs to the people, let go!" and so on ...

The very fact that coyprights do cease to exist after a given period of time already is a concession to the public.
Being a creative myself it's kinda funny to watch that this whole copyright issue is usually brought up by people who weren't creative in their whole life. Or tried to make a decent living out of it.

So, could you "non-creative" please accept the fact that we "creative ones" would like us to decide how and when and what for our work may be used by anyone else?

Imagine I'd tell any Kansas farmer that his land will be returned to the people 70 years after his death - which would even make sense since he even didn't create the land or the soil - and his children surely had plenty of time to make some money to buy some land of their own ...