There's some interesting discussion about how long copyright terms should be to be economically optimal here: http://www.rufuspollock.org/economics/papers/optim

There's some interesting discussion about how long copyright terms should be to be economically optimal here: http://www.rufuspollock.org/economics/papers/optimal_copyright_term.pdf http://www.rufuspollock.org/economics/papers/optimal_copyrig... It arrives at a figure of 15 years, which seems quite sensible to me..