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When copyright lasted for 56 years maximum, people wrote books. Good books. The tripling (or more) of copyright terms does not seem to have resulted in a similar tripling of the quality of books.
This expansion into the lifetimes of people who weren't even born when the author's grandchildren died of old age benefits one group, and one group only: corporations. Like so many other things, the interests of the citizen have become secondary to the interests of the corporation. It's the golden rule again: he who has the gold makes the rules.
Copyright law was meant "to promote the progress of science and the useful arts" -- that is, to serve the public good. Making it possible to earn a living as an author ensured that the public would have books to read.
I'm fairly sure that Mark Twain, if asked about the "rights" of his distant descendants (or, in this case, a foundation serving as his literary executors), would have said something like "Tell them to write their own damned books."
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