Copyright laws, in my opinion, should mimic (with mild extension) patent laws Say...double the length of a patent (for institutionally-produced work) or lifeti

Copyright laws, in my opinion, should mimic (with mild extension) patent laws Say...double the length of a patent (for institutionally-produced work) or lifetime of the creator(s) (for everything else) If patents last for 15 or 20 years[0], then anything created by an organization (business, non-profit, etc) should cap at 30 or 40 years (I would push for 30 ... but would settle for 40) Anything created by individually-named and -credited people should last until the last of them dies (or they agree to relinquish their copyright) You write a book at 20 and live to 80? You have a 60-year copyright. Write a book at 74 and die at 81? Congratulations - 7-year copyright. You write a technical manual for a business? It is under copyright for no more than 40 years. (Again, I would lobby for 30 - but 40 is still in the realm of plausible.) Most corporately-produced, copyrightable items have zero value at well-under 20 years (let alone 30 or 40) - but even those that do have value past that point (say ... Yankee Doodle Dandy, or the like), are not especially likely to be "infringed upon". Keeping with the movie example for a moment, say you look at the 1969 movie The Italian Job. It was remade in 2003. Remaking a story 30+ years on detracts in no way from the previous rendition, but can give a new value. ------- [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Term_of_patent_in_the_United_States https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Term_of_patent_in_the_United_S...