At least patents expire after a while, and they are public. They mostly slow down commercial application of new discoveries. Copyright doesn't really expire in

At least patents expire after a while, and they are public. They mostly slow down commercial application of new discoveries. Copyright doesn't really expire in some places, or after a very long time. I believe this is way more damaging to progress. Especially for publication, since science works better in a tight feedback loop (and it doesn't work as well if... authors die before others can reply to their papers).