re: #72 KGxvi

Maybe it’s because I’m a(n aspiring) writer with too much of a legal education, but my only concern is opening up works to derivative works during the life of the author. Under your formulation, at 25 years, A Song of Fire and Ice (Game of Thrones) would fall into the public domain in 5 years time. But it seems GRRM still has plenty more work in that realm.

Copyright was meant to be a temporary thing to encourage people to create. When it goes on for so long that it limits other people creating (most creations are derivatives), it’s running counter to its purpose. We don’t keep patents for that long.