The copyright term was 28 years, with an option to renew for another 28 years, at a time when distributing your work worldwide, or even nationwide — to derive i

The copyright term was 28 years, with an option to renew for another 28 years, at a time when distributing your work worldwide, or even nationwide — to derive its full value — could take years, or even longer to promote and gain awareness. Now distribution and promotion are very much faster. It can takes weeks, or even days, for a work to gain popularity. The term should be updated to reflect that reality: it should be something like 3-5 years, with the possibility to extend if necessary. In all cases a copyright should be treated like trademark: use it or lose it. And if an author isn’t responsive to requests, there should be some relatively simple way to force expiration of the copyright and use the work.