Quote:
Originally Posted by Sirtel
Life of the creator, period. No more reason to support their spouses/relatives than anyone else's. They can earn a living themselves. If my hairdresser or plumber dies, will their spouses and children get any special benefits? Why should authors'?
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That has some validity, but sadly not going to happen.
Actually I doubt that copyright terms will be reduced unless all civilisation entirely collapses.
The difference from a plumber or electrician vs Intellectual property is than no human labour is required. The work has all been done already, even if the author was Christopher Paolini and he lives to 90 years old, he's maybe getting 72 years of royalties.
Note that publishers like the House of Random Penguins would simply make more profit if royalties ended with a popular author's death. Maybe unscrupulous publishers would hasten a popular author's death.
The tontine in original form was banned in some countries for this reason.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tontine