Well, we're talking about Europe here, and the rationale underlying continental European copyright is not the same as that for British/US copyright. Continenta

Well, we're talking about Europe here, and the rationale underlying continental European copyright is not the same as that for British/US copyright. Continental European copyright (which generally is not called "copyright", but some variation on "author's right", such as "droit d'auteur") assumes that authors have a natural, personal, inalienable right in their creations (following Kant and Beaumarchais) because each creative work embodies part of the author's personality. In short: the continental European model treats copyright as a right, not as a privilege. Whether that right encourages people to produce new works is absolutely irrelevant under that theory; its goal is to protect authors, not to incentivize creation. Note, for example, that under French law, moral rights are indeed perpetual, lasting forever (which does create the occasional problem for museums).