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Definitely have to agree to disagree, and vehemently so. If the person just wanted to give the work to the world, they could have done so for the start.
Many to create things to give something to the world, they do so to make money, to make a living, to get wealthy if they're talented enough that 1,000s or millions of people like their work enough to pay for it.
And they should keep that right to make money off their creation at least until the end of their lives, and probably a bit beyond (though 70 is excessive).
I don't get the damn obsession with the public domain anyway. Especially for books. Most any piece of great literature that would be some assets to the public is freely available in libraries so even the poorest people in society can access them freely.
I mean sure, people can't remix them etc. while they're not in the public domain, but I don't see the point. I want to read original works, not remixed garbage like the Pride and Prejudice and Zombies non-sense. If the author had any true talent, he could have written his own period piece with Zombies, rather than making a buck by perverting a classic work in the public domain that sold only because it was Pride and Prejudice.
In any case, I think it's a disgusting example of sense of entitlement to think copyrights shouldn't last at least until death, and expect people to just create stuff to the world and not care about getting every dollar they can get out of it over their lifetimes.
That would absolutely stymie creativity and innovation as the most talented people want to be compensated for their work. How many great pieces of art, literature, music etc. have been done over human history that were not done for compensation or attract attention in effort to make money in the future? Else they wouldn't be selling it in the first place, as no one is forcing them to quit their day job and become a working author, musician etc.
Thankfully, I think your views are a pretty fringe minority, and at least in the US I can't see us every having a situation were copyrights expire before death. We may see changes that allow copyrights to expire on materials out of print for a set amount of time etc. so those can get in the public domain since no one is buying them anyway. But that's the most I can see happening.
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