As I understand it, the "life + x" idea came from Europe. The situation in Germany: It's not possible to preemptively put works in the public domain here (exce

As I understand it, the "life + x" idea came from Europe. The situation in Germany: It's not possible to preemptively put works in the public domain here (except by publishing anonymously and making sure no-one manages to associate that art with the artist). Our "Urheberrecht" (author's rights) is more along the notion of art being an expression of the author's personality, and thus needing appropriate protection. "copyright" (the right to commercially exploit these works) is merely a part of it. Under this model, it makes sense to protect works for life time + X years. (+ X years to make sure that things can settle down, instead of controversial art flaring up right after the artist's death). A good compromise could have been to restrict commercial value to 15 years after publication (or whatever) while keeping certain non-monetary rights to the author for life (recognition, the right to forfeit recognition, ...).