>so should an artist. They can, by continuing to create new work The key word to your "business activities" is ACTIVITIES. Further You seem to be under the f

>so should an artist. They can, by continuing to create new work The key word to your "business activities" is ACTIVITIES. Further You seem to be under the false impression that the purpose of copyright is so creators can make money. No that is not the purpose. Copyright has the sole constitutional purpose in the US to promote useful sciences, no other purpose. Not so creators can make money, not so widows can make money. The ability for those people to make some money off of their work is entice them to create in the first place. Placing a limit on the time they are earn from the work entices additional activity including 1. Them to create additional works every 14-28 years 2. Allows other people to make use of that work to create additional work after 14-28 years As was eluded to in other comments most of the IP locked away today is based on work that was created by others, a majority of Disney for example was inspired or directly copied from Public domain Works The idea behind a 14 year copyright is to inject the Public Domain with a rich set of IP creators can use to create more works. Which is the purpose of Copyright not profit