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Originally Posted by Quoth
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 |
The book should go into public domain when its author dies, so no one will benefit.
Copyright extending past the author's death to benefit their relatives is unfair to everyone else's relatives who is not an author. Of course, the real reason is not to support the author's spouse or kids, but so that publishers could still sell dead authors' works and get money for them.
I'm sure that copyright terms won't be reduced. Too much money in the business.